No Bulb!

There have actually been a few developments that last couple of days. Kevin noticed the bulb on the end of his tube wasn't staying "charged"; flattened to create suction. He heard a soft squealing noise and saw it was inflating which is no good because then the fluid isn't drawn out. Upon further inspection he discovered a hole in his tube right where it exists the skin. We didn't know what to do about that. Since it was Friday night, he called on Saturday morning and spoke with the on-call surgeon. He said it was fine. We were not convinced. Kevin felt his tube wouldn't drain properly or had the possibility to get clogged with blood or skin.

So he called again on Monday morning and left a message. No return call. The clinic was closed for MLK day. But this morning the nurse called us and spoke with Choi. Choi called Kevin back (love the person-to-person communication!) and told Kevin to cut the tube off past the stitch holding it in place and just to get rid of the bulb. Kevin is to continue to pack the area with gauze and the minimal fluid will continue to come out the short drain (unlikely it is clogged Choi said) and just soak into the gauze.

So no more dangling bulb. No more pinning and re-pinning it to his shirt to get the exact spot to camouflage it underneath his clothes. No more adjusting it with every shift of his body in bed while he tries to sleep. No more gingerly setting it on the bathroom counter after his shower while he dries off and making sure to limit his movements so he doesn't pull too far away and rip the stitch out - which happened once.

Even though nothing has changed internally with Kevin, this is progress to us.