Yay! No More Drain!

For the past few days, Ella has had to function with that super-long tube, with the kind-of-heavy round thing on the bottom, coming out of her head. Like I mentioned before, this made dressing, sitting, sleeping, and almost every other part of normal life a bit more complicated. But the worst part? With it in, she was not able to bathe AT ALL. And considering the mess that had been left from all of the stitches and tubes, I couldn't wait to be able to clean her up a bit. And, thankfully, that day came today. (:

Basically, the drain was needed for all of the excess fluid that the body creates during any type of "trauma" such as a surgery. So all of the excess fluid that was collecting in the pocket under her skin - where the tissue expanders were - needed a place to go. And, as the amount being collected was reduced, the need for the drain no longer existed.

Ella woke up around 4:30 this morning, and when I put her on my lap she said "ouch!" "You hurt me mommy!" When I asked her where it hurt, she said it was on her head - by her tube. And then I could feel something wet on my leg. That wasn't a good sign. Dave got a flashlight, and looked at the place where the tube went into her skin, and said it looked like some of it had come out already - quite a bit. So since the amount of fluid had already reached a low enough point for the drain to be removed, we knew that first thing this morning was the time to take care of that.

Ella did very good. She didn't want to go at first, because she knew that her hair was pulled when the other one was removed, and didn't care to go through that again. But taking it out turned out to be rather simple - a snip of a stitch, and a small pull, and it was out before Ella even realized what was going on. But when the doctor cleaned up the area just a bit - to get the gunky hair there cleaned, that must have hurt, because she started to cry and, when they were done, told the doctor (who was doing a fellowship under our doctor) and the nurse (Jim aka "Tonto") to "Leave me alone!" and to "Get away from me!" And she was inconsolable for a couple of minutes. But I think it was worth it. My fresh, clean-smelling little girl is great to have again. (: