Welcome back to my world! It's been a while since we've spent time together so I thought I would bring back the fun with one of my Really Real Posts. This is going to be one of those posts where I try to help you understand what it's like. It's not a ploy for sympathy - see my early post about where that crap belongs - it's to help you understand my experience in more detail. As always, if you have any questions, send them my way!
We've covered tissue expansion before so I won't bore you with that again. I will remind you that we are not only expanding the skin but there's that muscle that's still attached in the back and stretched around to my front. Prior to 2 weeks ago, the pain of a fill lasted 24-36 hours and was tolerable. With the last fill, things got real. Pain lasted at least a week (some days I was holding back tears) and soreness lasted right up until today...when I got another fill. We are now officially stretching that muscle. So I hurt around half of my torso. So what does that mean? How does that pain impact your daily life? For now I will provide you with a list and will go into more detail in the next post.
We've covered tissue expansion before so I won't bore you with that again. I will remind you that we are not only expanding the skin but there's that muscle that's still attached in the back and stretched around to my front. Prior to 2 weeks ago, the pain of a fill lasted 24-36 hours and was tolerable. With the last fill, things got real. Pain lasted at least a week (some days I was holding back tears) and soreness lasted right up until today...when I got another fill. We are now officially stretching that muscle. So I hurt around half of my torso. So what does that mean? How does that pain impact your daily life? For now I will provide you with a list and will go into more detail in the next post.
Here's a few examples of what hurts:
Breathing
Laughing
Coughing
Driving
Waving (on my left side any movement of my arm)
Lying down or Sleeping- in any position but especially when I roll over at any angle (not possible to lay on my stomach - the Wiffle Foobs make that impossible)
Sitting up to get out of bed
Getting out of a chair
Getting into Bobby's truck
Lifting anything
Reaching up for something in a kitchen cabinet
...and right now, doing absolutely nothing hurts. The tissue stretching happens regardless of what I'm doing. Think of it like getting braces tightened. Same concept but I feel like I've "sprained" my upper body for a week or more. It's not irritating like a muscle pull. It was prior to the most fills, now it hurts.
I'm 70% of the way through and the last few fills will be ugly. It's not the end of the world and it's only temporary. I'll push through but if you see me, no bear hugs please.
So now you know.
Love to all
Andee