Here we are, 7 days post op. Wow. Still mending and living with some weird stuff. It has been a week of frustration, pain, muscle spasms, drains, drains and more drains The pain has mostly been due to the expanders. I think I mentioned before that she thought things went so well that she didn't wait to do the first fill - she added fluid during surgery so there has been some tissue stretching happening and it is less than comfy.
I had an unplanned visit with the surgeon late last week because there were some spots on my incision (left/radiated side) that looked questionable...like it was dying, questionable. The good news is the dark areas were on the radiated skin side and NOT on the flap side. She had me come into the office just to make sure all was OK - which it was - and I even got a tube out! She pulled the catheter from my back so that leaves me with only the 3 drain tubes and 100+ stitches to go (update - I don't think there was as many stitches in my back incision as I first thought. Still a lot to get out though).
NOw, to provide a wee bit more detail on the dark spots, their appearance has improved, and the tissue has not died (fingers crossed) but it is just proof that the radiated skin could not have handled any of this on its own. Pretty vivid display but I get it now.
There is still a substantial amount of swelling on the left side. Remember, my big, buff latissumus muscle was pulled through under my arm. It will eventually atrophy but for now it's just irritating me (see post entitled Tennis Anyone?).
The updates are:
I had an unplanned visit with the surgeon late last week because there were some spots on my incision (left/radiated side) that looked questionable...like it was dying, questionable. The good news is the dark areas were on the radiated skin side and NOT on the flap side. She had me come into the office just to make sure all was OK - which it was - and I even got a tube out! She pulled the catheter from my back so that leaves me with only the 3 drain tubes and 100+ stitches to go (update - I don't think there was as many stitches in my back incision as I first thought. Still a lot to get out though).
NOw, to provide a wee bit more detail on the dark spots, their appearance has improved, and the tissue has not died (fingers crossed) but it is just proof that the radiated skin could not have handled any of this on its own. Pretty vivid display but I get it now.
There is still a substantial amount of swelling on the left side. Remember, my big, buff latissumus muscle was pulled through under my arm. It will eventually atrophy but for now it's just irritating me (see post entitled Tennis Anyone?).
The updates are:
- Follow up appt tomorrow to check incisions and drains
- Might lose some stitches and/or a drain (might is the key word)
- Next expander fill won't happen until a week after the last drain comes out. I'm hoping that fill will be less painful since it won't coincide with the trauma of surgery. Fingers crossed.
As expected, this has been the most challenging surgery/recovery experience of them all. The next one should be a breeze!
I will update tomorrow after my appointment.
Love to all!
Andee