Drain wounds won’t heal

Have you reached out to your oncology team? They will let you know whether or not they want to look at the drainage sites. After whipple surgery, my tubes were removed before I left the hospital, but I had a lot of drainage once I returned home. It was challenging keeping the gauze pads dry. Finally, I resorted to sanitary napkins held in place by surgical tape. The wound that gave me a difficult time was the two inch laparoscopic incision on my stomach. It oozed for weeks. When I met with the oncologist, she said the wound was healing just fine. The discharge was my body’s way of trying to remove foreign matter (probably the internal stitches). Recovery from whipple surgery is not easy. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve called my oncology team with concerns, but at least I got answers. We have to be our own advocates. Hope you get this drainage issue figured out. Let us know.

I can't speak to your exact situation since I've never had the Whipple, and I'm not a medical professional of any sort, but wanted to mention something. You might start with your oncologist and ask for a referral to a wound care specialist. They have many techniques to assess and treat stubborn wounds, which is what the drain openings are. I have not had this with regard to my pancan, but nearly 4 years ago, I landed in the hospital critically ill with heart issues, probably caused by covid. Part of my early treatment was a week on ECMO. When they removed the plumbing from my left groin, it hemorrhaged, and then the wound never healed up. I had several visits in the hospital from wound care staffers who tried to get the wound to close. Finally, I had surgery with a vascular plastic surgeon through my cardiology practice. She did a muscle flap, or transplant, moving one of my left quadriceps 180 degrees up and into the wound area in an attempt to get blood flow up there. It worked. I will say that in all, it took nearly 4 months--plus the surgery--to get that wound to close completely. So you may be just fine. But your oncologist and a wound care specialist would be the ones to give you the best info.

I have spoken with my surgeon and oncologist. They both seem to think it will just take time. I do have another appointment with my surgeon next week, I will mention it to him about wound care specialist. I just feel that as long as I am weeping bile it will never heal. My tubes were in for 5 months. Thank you for your advice, I appreciate it.

Just checking in, @usaf. Have things improved?

Somewhat, one of the wounds seems to be closing up. Other one is draining as I write this. Thanks for checking in. I do have an zoom call with my surgeon tomorrow.

Going for a CT scan on Friday. They are looking to see if I need to have a stint put in my bile duct to stop the leaking.

Drainage from various sites likely have different time frames for healing and reasons for variations. After my husband's pancreas, spleen, pylorus, duodenum and gallbladder removal and the replacement of the portal vein, he had numerous weeks of steady drainage from a point athe middle of the long front suture line. They gave us bags like are used for colostomies. This adhered to the abdominal wall over the draining area filling with the drainage and we were able to drain off the collection daily. There was a lot of drainage, but our imagination was that the the amount of fluid used during the 14 hour surgery was draining from the interstitial tissues after the surgery. He gained about 8 pounds during the surgery as I recall likely from the fluid given during the surgery. That weight was all lost by the time the draining stopped and the wound closed. Your health care team can act on what you report to them. So count the dressing changes and frequency to give them some idea of how things are going. The body is so amazing in its healing capacity and the health care team is amazing in their support during this new experience.