Day of Discharge | 10 Aug 2013

I'm getting sleep deprived at the hospital in the last few nights, where the sleep seems more like naps, with a lot of getting up to the toilet.

Woke up very lethargic to the morning of Sunday, 10 Aug. Although I still very much yearning to go home, I have set a neutral behaviour to avoid disappointment. I did my normal morning routine, walking around, having breakfast, watching the TV, washing up and waiting for Dr I to visit.

The drain site got almost soaked about 10:15am. Good thing Dr I came appeared 5 mins later. He checked the op site, checked the drain site, the bottle, the tube and trying to 'milk out' seroma out of the body / tube to reaffirm that the drain is serving no purpose anymore.

Then he let go the big sentence, "Ok, we'll let you off-drain today and you can go home!!" The 'lowering down my expectation' behaviour helped a lot. I was beaming instantly, excitedly spontaneously. 

The nurse put on a temp gauze on the leakage drain site while we waited for the specialist nurse from breast team to assist on off-drain.

I started to pack my stuff, really so much more things compared to the day I admitted. I went out to the reception area to share my joy with nurses in charge, to the cleaner auntie. The victorious hand sign which I put up must have lighted up the ambience.

Then the husband and kids came earlier than usual today. The discharge procedure turned to be quite fast to my surprise. First to visit was the pharmacist who brought all the meds for 'takeaway' and explained fluently almost like a pre-recorded sound system. Oh she's good.

Then came the breast nurse to off my drain about 12:20pm. This nurse is an assistant to T (no thanks to weekend discharge). She was pretty experienced too but a little too snobby to be a nurse. Well well... But I already hinted gently to T about this when she called after I got home :)

On the note of taking off drain, it was pretty ok for me, the pulling of the tube out of the body can be felt but not disturbing. The ouch part was actually on the antiseptic spray before this nurse put on a gauze to the drain site. That burning sensation...

Anyway, less than 30 mins later, my favourite (partner-in-crime) nurse came with the discharge summary, the MC, appt card and more explanation. I was very happy that she happened to be on duty today, so I could hand out my thank you card to her personally, and another thank you card to the nurses via her. We took photos together and I got to keep her number for future contact too :)

So, walking out of the ward room with bags and more bags, I felt like doing a round run along the area before parting! Don't worry, I didn't do that although it really crossed my mind haha! Then the nurse cut away my admission tag for the sign of freedom and good health! It felt really great!

...

During the 20min drive home, I started to do all the maths count. A total of 9 nights stay at the hospital, 8 days post op recovery and 8 days walking around with drain too, 1 breast gone, I think it all summed up to the step 1 of killing cancer! Way to go!!