How long did you stay taped up? You have to remove it daily or just left it on for however long you had to?
Well, initially I was only supposed to stay taped for a couple days max - just to make sure the bleeding stopped and there was no clotting/hematoma under the skin. But, remember that I said I continued to bleed internally that night after the surgery, swole up and had to have each side drained the next morning. That's when the drains were inserted just to make sure it didn't happen again. Those I wore for about five days, i think.
As far as the drain is concerned, the doctor simply left out the last couple of stitches (the incision was around the top outside portion of the nipple) on each side of my chest and inserted very small rubber tubes (drains) about four inches into and down inside my chest. The two tubes attached to their own small clear rubber bladder that fastened to my belt. You squeeze each bladder to force out the air and then attach it to the tube, which creates a suction inside the tube and inside your chest so that the fluid (if any) will run downward into the bladder. When full, you empty and repeat.
If I had not taken the Nuprin, which caused the internal bleeding, I would have been untaped pretty quickly and at that point I should have only needed some smaller bandaids if anything.
BTW, when they stitched me up initially, they started from the inside and stitched there first. Then, they literally glued the incission tegether on the surface. The internal stiches just dissolve on their own. The glue evenutlaly fell off after a week or so. I can barely tell there was an incision at this point. The scaring is minimal.
