Drains--what's normal?

[veniamviam]

So I'm two days post-op and my drains are doing what they do and pulling fluid from my chest. The first night my right one drained a lot (25 ml between leaving the hospital and bedding down, then 35 ml by morning) whereas my left's been the slow and steady type. From last night to now, though (~12 hours if I had to guess) there's less than 10ml in each bulb. I'm not concerned about that, from what I've seen some guys just don't have much to drain.

I'm a little uncertain about what the fluid looks like, though. It's a mostly clear, vaguely yellowish fluid for the most part, with some red mixed in at certain points along the tubes. I was told to be concerned about dark red, stuff that looks like it's just blood, but I didn't think to ask what's normal as far as other colours. So, keeping in mind that everyone's different and normal is a kind of variable term anyway--what's normal to be coming out of my drains?

[spro]

I may be wrong, seem to remember being told that a significant amount of anything other than blood is something I should call the nurses about. I had a little bit of whitish stuff but not a lot. I would call your doc or nurses to find out if that's normal or if it's a sign of infection.

[FTMax]

My first day was mostly red discharge and I had to empty them every 6 hours or so. Second day, they filled about half as much in the same amount of time and were combo red/yellow. By day three it was really nothing, and all yellow. By the end of the week I had them in, what little was coming out was a brown color.

[HeyTrace19]

First day for me was very red, but watery, not thick like blood...more volume on the right side than the left.  Following day was a pinkish yellow color and a little thicker.  I only remember emptying my drains a couple of times as they were not in very long and did not fill much after the first day or two.  Sounds like what you have looks pretty normal...in my opinion.

[Kylo]

I believe the yellow fluids are blood plasma and the white is lymph fluid, and the pinky-red is a combo of those with a few fresh blood cells in. Brown fluids will probably be fluids with stale (dead) blood cells in. All are pretty normal to be found seeping from a fresh wound for a few days.

[veniamviam]

Thanks for the responses, that makes me feel a lot better--looks like what I've got is mostly blood and blood plasma, not that there's really much to speak of at this point. I get them out on Monday, but I could've had them out Thursday morning honestly (over the past twenty-four hours my total output has been... under two mL per side). I'll be so happy to get these stinkin' tubes out of me, but in the meantime, I'm glad my drainage is looking approximately normal ^__^

[Muscle Matt]

I'm on my second week with my left drain. Had to stay in longer because I had a hematoma that needed to be drained. So while the one side went from bright red, to yellow-red, to almost nothing, the left one has been dark red, bright red, dark red again, and now it's like black-brown. I'm going to get it taken out shortly, and I get the feeling they're going to need to drain the rest with a needle...

Can't wait to be drain-free, I knew I would end up encountering some kind of complications here (even though Dr. Fischer tried to convince me that it was very, very rare that anything would happen), but this is ridiculous. People keep asking me how I feel about my chest after surgery and I'm like "I DON'T KNOW. I'M STILL TRAPPED IN MY SURGERY GEAR."

[veniamviam]

Oof, that's rough buddy. Sorry to hear about your haematoma, even moreso about you gettin stuck with a drain for longer than you've gotta be. I just got mine pulled a little under an hour ago, and being drain-free is a pretty nice thing. I hope this is the last of your complications, dude! Hopefully you'll be able to give everyone an answer soon.

[Ephemeral]

I bled A LOT, and I really mean A LOT, the first couple of days so I had to stay longer because I couldn't even get up and pee the first day without almost fainting due to low blood pressure from the loss of blood, and this was about a week ago.

You can have up to 50-60 ml and that's perfectly fine as long as you don't begin to feel crap and the fluid is normally reddish and can become more pale, though the one drain I had to leave intact for the entire week until I removed it yesterday got so dark it almost looked like coagulated blood and that's apparently fine too.

The recommendation is to remove the drains if you are sub 30 ml, that was the minimum requirement for me to get rid of them, though I've heard some seem to go by 20 ml.

I'd recommend checking with your surgeon what standard they go by.

[veniamviam]

I barely bled at all after the first night. Had surgery on Monday and probably could've gotten my drains pulled by Thursday morning (Medalie goes by <30ml, I believe, but the lowest I've seen was <15mL in a 24 hour period, and I was definitely <15 by Thursday). My left drain got pretty dark in the bulb, but yeah, it's just because it's nearly impossible to get all the draining fluid out of the bulb so what's getting left over just sits and coagulates a bit. The right one didn't coagulate nearly as much though, and after the first day they were draining the same amount of fluid (a very minimal amount, at that).

Basically the reason I was draining only a little bit and draining just some plasma and a little bit of blood was because I had virtually no swelling or any bruising at all and therefore just about no fluid to drain. The nurse who did my post-op was pretty impressed with how good everything looked, since I didn't even have bruising from my vest.

[Ephemeral]

I barely bled at all after the first night. Had surgery on Monday and probably could've gotten my drains pulled by Thursday morning (Medalie goes by <30ml, I believe, but the lowest I've seen was <15mL in a 24 hour period, and I was definitely <15 by Thursday). My left drain got pretty dark in the bulb, but yeah, it's just because it's nearly impossible to get all the draining fluid out of the bulb so what's getting left over just sits and coagulates a bit. The right one didn't coagulate nearly as much though, and after the first day they were draining the same amount of fluid (a very minimal amount, at that).

Basically the reason I was draining only a little bit and draining just some plasma and a little bit of blood was because I had virtually no swelling or any bruising at all and therefore just about no fluid to drain. The nurse who did my post-op was pretty impressed with how good everything looked, since I didn't even have bruising from my vest.

Hah, yeah, I definitely thought mine would be a hit and run kind of thing, where I'd leave earlier the same day since I barely had any tissue to remove since I'm very small and I was doing a peri but lolnope. I had to stay at the hospital for two nights, I could probably have stayed for 3 depending on how I felt, so I am not sure why I bled that much. In general, I experience that I bleed more and more easily since I began taking T. It's quite odd, really. Pre-T, it was almost impossible to do blood tests on me for example, so they virtually had to stick me almost everywhere, but now I never have any issues with it.

[pumpkinspiceboy]

This response is a bit late, but for anyone else wondering, colours along the spectrum from blood red to pale yellow are normal! My paperwork says that the typical colour progression for drainage is: bloody, serosaquinous (watery/pinkish blood), light pink, orange, straw yellow.

Other drain info: Drains are typically in for around a week, or when your fluid output is >30cc per bulb in a 24-hr period, for two days in a row. (Obviously everyone's instructions may differ, but guidelines can be helpful for what to expect.) You're going to be measuring the stuff a few times a day or as often as needed to keep the bulbs' suction strong. One issue I had is the blood clotting in the output bit of the drain bulbs, which blocked the flow, but this sort of resolved itself by eventually breaking up on its own little by little, though the flow was comprimised.

Yep, it's all as gross as it sounds!

[anibioman]

Yellow fluid is normal.

[tjack77]

I went to the emergency last night because blood soaked through the dressings on my right. I was worried that I might have ripped the stitches, turns out it was the drain tube got clogged so the fluid was by passing the tube... Any of you have the same experience?

I also noticed most of your surgeon advise to stop T 2 week pre-op and 2 weeks post-op, but my surgeon said doesn't matter... I wonder if T causes my blood to be a bit too thick and harder to pass through the tube...

It's been 4 days since surgery and my drainage is about 35ml every 12 hours, is it normal? I understand everyone's different, just want to know if I'm close to the majority...

Jack

[veniamviam]

I also noticed most of your surgeon advise to stop T 2 week pre-op and 2 weeks post-op, but my surgeon said doesn't matter... I wonder if T causes my blood to be a bit too thick and harder to pass through the tube...

Most I've seen have just had to stop two weeks pre-op and can go back immediately post-op (I actually shifted my shot schedule around to time it so I'd only be one day behind), from what I've heard that's probably because of concerns over blood pressure more than anything else (someone else can confirm/deny). Sorry about your rough luck with drainage--mine was ridiculously low, I could've had my drains taken out two or three days post-op no problem. The usual is about a week to be low enough to pull, but some people take longer and that's perfectly okay. Normal health-wise is a weird term (former nursing student here), but it's not uncommon. I think you might be stuck with the drains a little longer than the week that most people have, but so long as you keep stripping the drains and aren't draining straight-up blood, I think everything'll be fine.