Good News and Not So Good News

The not-so-good news really isn’t that terrible. The blister on my abdominal incision was still oozing this morning. I wrote to Dr Gimbel again just to let him know. Within an hour or so, he wrote back:

You probably have either small area of fat necrosis or a “spitting suture” – both very common and not big deals. Probably not infection if there’s no angry red skin, fevers, chills. For now you can just put a 4×4 on it once a day (twice if needed). Why don’t you call the office and arrange to come in this week for me to take a peek?

Fat necrosis and spitting suture both make me nervous, although less nervous than an infection would have made me. Both of these things could require small procedures involving digging things out of the wound. I really don’t want him to stick anything in there, even if I hardly have any feeling there. If it’s worse than that, it could require a bit of surgery to re-open and then fix the wound again, which could also result in a drain again. But I think that’s unlikely. I’ve looked at pictures of these things (again, I don’t recommend this) and mine is minor compared to what I’ve seen online. Mine also doesn’t seem much like a spitting stitch, which is commonly described as a pimple. Mine is more of an oozing blister, which seems more like the descriptions of fat necrosis or some kind of abscess.

I will call Dr Gimbel’s office tomorrow – he’s in surgery on Mondays, but hopefully I can get in to see him Tuesday. I have my six-week check up a week from Thursday (which will actually be more like 7.5 weeks – tomorrow is six weeks). I can also ask him about the puckering under my left breast that still stings. And I can have him check the opening on the right side of the abdominal incision that actually seems to have finally closed!

On to the good news. This morning we took our son to the zoo. It was warm out, and we had a great time wandering around the mile-long loop, up and down some rather large hills, and through the exhibits. We came home and had lunch and naps, and then we went out for a mile-long walk around our neighborhood. It was during that walk that I realized – I had no back pain! I hadn’t had any at the zoo, and I didn’t really start to notice my back until I began cooking dinner (that’s right – tonight I cooked dinner, from scratch, for my guys for the first time in six weeks). So, that’s some progress. It feels good to know I may have conquered this before I head back to work – I was a little worried about being in pain all day while trying to teach, attend meetings, and sit at my desk. Now I know that I’m building up more strength, and hopefully I will continue to get stronger from here!

Pus (no pics, but gross description)

The other day, I was writing about the blister I have on my abdominal incision, and I wanted to say that at least there was no pus – I couldn’t figure out what the adjective form of that word was without first typing “pussy” and then immediately realizing that was incorrect. Pusy? Also seems wrong. Pusey? Whatever.

The point is, I officially have pus. The blister I had earlier in the week didn’t shrink at all over the past few days, despite my attempts to heal it with gauze and neosporin. This evening, while doing my nightly inspection, it burst. Clear liquid squirted out all over the make-up mirror I use to magnify things I inspect. Then, a thick, yellow, oily fluid began to ooze out. As I pressed on it, the blister kept filling and more pus continued to ooze out, every now and then with a bit of blood. After several minutes of pressing, filling, and oozing, it seemed sort of endless and I became bored and a bit nauseous. I cleaned the area with saline, wadded up some gauze and taped it on there. Then, of course, I immediately emailed Dr. Gimbel. I do suspect this is somewhat normal – someone on the FORCE board called hers a “suture abscess” and when I googled that, every page mentioned pus (apparently that’s what an abscess is – a pocket of pus). I anxiously await his reply.

Sweet Relief

Ahhhhhh. Hear that? It’s the sound of a woman wearing comfortable underwear over her bizarrely shaped drop-off stomach. No longer are my panties digging into my incision line. No longer are my pants biting my belly button. I am finally comfortable!

So, I said last week that I had ordered some Spanx. I tried three types of their high-waisted underwear, but I wasn’t overly impressed with any of them; one pair was too low so it kept rolling down below my drop-off, and the other two were so high they went up to my bra. I felt a bit suffocated. Not to mention, Spanx are quite expensive, so I was sort of looking for an excuse not to like them. I then ordered four types of Bali shaping high-waisted under from onehanesplace.com, a great place to get discount bras and such. They were somewhat less expensive, but they have yet to arrive.

In the meantime, I was at Target today, and I bought four other types of high-waisted underwear. I tried on the least expensive ones first, and wouldn’t you know… sweet relief. My tummy feels secure, nothing’s biting me, my incision feels protected. I didn’t even bother to try on the other ones – they’re all more than twice as much money and they’re going right back to the store.

I’m thrilled to now say I wear Hanes Light Control Tummy Panel Briefs, otherwise known as…. granny panties. No, they’re not sexy, but they feel awesome!

Pucker Up (graphic pic)

Last night, I felt something in the crease underneath my left breast – a bit like a bite or a sting. When I went to look at it in the mirror, it looked just fine – no tear or opening in the incision. This is the incision that starts at my pseudo-areola and goes down to the bottom of my breast:

Breast Incision from pseudo-areola area down to bottom of breast

This incision has looked like this for a while. Although it looks sort of raised, it really isn’t – it’s quite smooth. When I run my hand under my breast, I don’t even really feel the incision there.

If you look closely though, at the very bottom is a bit of a pucker, probably where the last or first stitch is. If I touch that spot, it stings as if it’s an open wound. When I met with Dr Nguyen a few months ago, he said this would be his biggest concern about reducing my breasts so much – that the incision would open at the bottom. Although Dr Gimbel did a different type of incision than Dr Ngyuen would have done (Dr Gimbel did what’s called a keyhole incision and Dr Nguyen would have done an anchor incision), Dr Nguyen’s warning has been in the back of my mind throughout this process.

This morning I still felt the burning in that tiny spot, so after my shower I put some neosporin on it and taped some gauze under there between my breast and my underwire bra. I then did many load of laundry (which required carrying baskets up and down two flights of steps) and in between sat at my desk writing. Later I walked up to my son’s school (only two blocks but up a large hill) where I volunteered for two hours. By the time I got home, the spot under my breast was really hurting. I took off the bra, looked in the mirror, and it hadn’t changed at all. So I reapplied neosporin, re-taped the gauze, and left my bra off for the rest of the day. I think I will not wear a bra tomorrow either to give that spot a little rest.

Because there’s nothing coming out of it, I’m not going to bother Dr Gimbel about it. But of course, one more open wound means I’m not headed to the pool any time soon. Little things like this remind me, too, that even though I’m becoming more active and headed closer to getting back to work, I’m still not fully healed, and anything can happen if I overdo it.

More snip snipping

Last night after I wrote my blog entry, I decided to snip off that little stitch poking out of my right boob. It was too tempting to keep touching it – trying to push it back in, trying to pull it out. So I cut it off and put some neosporin over the area. This morning it looks less red and seems to have a bit of a scab, so that’s good.

I also kept reading about the blister and came across the term “seroma.” Do yourself a favor – do not look this up on Google Images. You will be haunted – trust me. For some reason, apparently there are a lot of animals who get these, and they turn into huge gaping gross wounds. You don’t want to see that when you’re worried about your own wound healing.

I did post on the FORCE boards about my blister, and did get a response from someone who had something similar. Because of her response, I will keep the area covered with neosporin and gauze, just to make sure it doesn’t explode all over me (with what is probably a quarter of a teaspoon of fluid, but still….).