Stripping drain, excruciating pain in right abdomen. What happened? Did I damage something?

You likely have a drain which is sucking on a nerve it is lying over. Stripping the drain increased the vacuum effect of the drainage catheter and this inadvertently caused greater suction on the nerve causing a sharp pain. The best thing to do in that situation is to release the cap on the suction bulb to stop the suction which will then release the nerve. Leave the bulb in the un squeezed position ( cap open to allow air in bulb) for 10 minutes the try resqueezing (priming) it and see if then pain returns. If it does call your doctor and ask for further instructions.

The pain you’re experiencing may be attributed to you possiblyover-doing it in terms of physical activity earlier that morning and/or fromthe drain putting pressure on a nerve while you were stripping it and/or from a muscle spasm in the abdomen. It is not unusual to get abdominal muscle spasm as you now have new tension on your abdominal muscles that are tightly sewn together. None of which should damage your overall end result, but regardless it’s best to follow-up with your surgeon to let him or her know about the pain you’re experiencing.

Pain can be the result of;tugging on the drain.trying to do too much housework, 5 days after surgery.muscle spasm.Remember to strip the drains away from the body. Also, if the pain persists, call your physician immediately.