It's been a month since I last posted. In some ways a lot has happened, in other ways not much at all has happened. I am currently 7 weeks into my recovery from surgery. I *should* be doing great by now, but I am not. The swelling in my breast has gone down, and it looks like a smaller cantaloupe now- rather than a giant one.
*Thing 1- necrotic tissue* The blood blister that I got right after surgery on the corner of my boob almost seemed like it was getting better, but in the end- it did not get better. It became necrotic- in other words, dead. The main part of the flap looks really good and healthy, but the corner of it that is where my cleavage should be- is the part that died. It is 1.5"x 2" big. The doctor finally decided that it wasn't going to heal on it's own, and that we would need to schedule a mini surgery for August so that he could stitch it all back together. The fun did not end there. In the office, he cleaned out the wound and cut out the necrotic tissue that he could get to. This left a gaping wound- as in: I would see WAY inside of my boob. It was pretty traumatic when I looked down to see that. It was even more traumatic when he began packing this hole with gauze- lots and lots of gauze. And then he told me that I would have to do this twice a day for the next two weeks. Usually medical stuff really doesn't phase me, but when he told me that, I almost threw up. I didn't even answer him- I just stared at him with large, terrified eyes. Jim was at work, and knew I had an appointment so he sent me an email asking how the appt. went. I responded that I could not talk about it. He replied back- you don't have to talk about it, just write it. All I could answer was 'no'. Before he came home I took a vicodin- not because I was in pain, but rather just so I would be buzzed enough to tell him what happened to me at the appointment. And then I made him change my bandage that night- all the while staring at the ceiling, so as to not accidentally catch a glimpse of the carnage. After that, I was on my own though. I had to buck up and do it myself after that because Jim had to work. It mostly happened like this- I would remove the tape and bandage, find a loose end of gauze, then close my eyes tightly and pull. And pull. And pull. That was the easy part- the truly gross part was shoving more gauze up into that boob hole. And if I have you truly grossed out by now- just be thankful that it wasn't anything you actually had to do!
*Thing 2- torn stitches* The second issue didn't appear until about 2 weeks into my recovery. I felt like I had pulled a muscle in my stomach- it sort of felt like it does when you get a side ache from running- only this was over toward the middle of my abdomen- just to the left of my belly button. I didn't really worry much about it, but then a couple of days later I was feeling my scar and noticed a huge, hard lump in my pubic area. When I talked to the doctor about it he said it was a hematoma and that the pain I was feeling was from some torn stitches, and that it would resolve in time. I also noticed a bulge in my abdomen- right where the pain was. For the life of me, I could not figure out how tearing out some stitches from the tummy tuck procedure would result in pain and a bulge up so high. The dr. didn't really explain any of that. Now, here I am 7 weeks into recovery and the pain is getting worse- though the hematoma is getting better. Of course, I was just in for a preop appointment on Tuesday, and the pain didn't start getting worse until Thursday night. Ugh! Well, I spent hours (HOURS) researching on the internet- trying to figure out the source of the pain, and why this strange bulge would be where it is. Then I finally stumbled across the answer. First, I must explain the reconstruction procedure more fully- I had wanted a DIEP flap- this is where they use no muscle, only skin and fat- as well as some veins. Well, he was not able to get the veins from the spot he wanted, so instead I ended up with a Muscle Sparing Free TRAM Flap. THis is almost the same as a DIEP flap, but they take some veins that are attached to the muscle- instead of teasing the veins free, they just cut a postage size bit of muscle out of the abdomen and use that for connecting the flap to the breast's blood supply. Well, I had no idea where the piece of muscle comes from....guess what- it's right where I have a bulge!
*Thing 1- necrotic tissue* The blood blister that I got right after surgery on the corner of my boob almost seemed like it was getting better, but in the end- it did not get better. It became necrotic- in other words, dead. The main part of the flap looks really good and healthy, but the corner of it that is where my cleavage should be- is the part that died. It is 1.5"x 2" big. The doctor finally decided that it wasn't going to heal on it's own, and that we would need to schedule a mini surgery for August so that he could stitch it all back together. The fun did not end there. In the office, he cleaned out the wound and cut out the necrotic tissue that he could get to. This left a gaping wound- as in: I would see WAY inside of my boob. It was pretty traumatic when I looked down to see that. It was even more traumatic when he began packing this hole with gauze- lots and lots of gauze. And then he told me that I would have to do this twice a day for the next two weeks. Usually medical stuff really doesn't phase me, but when he told me that, I almost threw up. I didn't even answer him- I just stared at him with large, terrified eyes. Jim was at work, and knew I had an appointment so he sent me an email asking how the appt. went. I responded that I could not talk about it. He replied back- you don't have to talk about it, just write it. All I could answer was 'no'. Before he came home I took a vicodin- not because I was in pain, but rather just so I would be buzzed enough to tell him what happened to me at the appointment. And then I made him change my bandage that night- all the while staring at the ceiling, so as to not accidentally catch a glimpse of the carnage. After that, I was on my own though. I had to buck up and do it myself after that because Jim had to work. It mostly happened like this- I would remove the tape and bandage, find a loose end of gauze, then close my eyes tightly and pull. And pull. And pull. That was the easy part- the truly gross part was shoving more gauze up into that boob hole. And if I have you truly grossed out by now- just be thankful that it wasn't anything you actually had to do!
*Thing 2- torn stitches* The second issue didn't appear until about 2 weeks into my recovery. I felt like I had pulled a muscle in my stomach- it sort of felt like it does when you get a side ache from running- only this was over toward the middle of my abdomen- just to the left of my belly button. I didn't really worry much about it, but then a couple of days later I was feeling my scar and noticed a huge, hard lump in my pubic area. When I talked to the doctor about it he said it was a hematoma and that the pain I was feeling was from some torn stitches, and that it would resolve in time. I also noticed a bulge in my abdomen- right where the pain was. For the life of me, I could not figure out how tearing out some stitches from the tummy tuck procedure would result in pain and a bulge up so high. The dr. didn't really explain any of that. Now, here I am 7 weeks into recovery and the pain is getting worse- though the hematoma is getting better. Of course, I was just in for a preop appointment on Tuesday, and the pain didn't start getting worse until Thursday night. Ugh! Well, I spent hours (HOURS) researching on the internet- trying to figure out the source of the pain, and why this strange bulge would be where it is. Then I finally stumbled across the answer. First, I must explain the reconstruction procedure more fully- I had wanted a DIEP flap- this is where they use no muscle, only skin and fat- as well as some veins. Well, he was not able to get the veins from the spot he wanted, so instead I ended up with a Muscle Sparing Free TRAM Flap. THis is almost the same as a DIEP flap, but they take some veins that are attached to the muscle- instead of teasing the veins free, they just cut a postage size bit of muscle out of the abdomen and use that for connecting the flap to the breast's blood supply. Well, I had no idea where the piece of muscle comes from....guess what- it's right where I have a bulge!
