Thursday, June 15, 2023
I had big plans to make a lasagna......god knows what I was thinking but I felt decent.....but needed a few things from the store.
As I'm off the narcotics in the daytime now I could drive again so I made my way, slowly, to Dollarama and Save on Foods. Well holy shit, just being up and mobile and moving around so much for an hour was EXHAUSTING.......needless to say, the lasagna was NOT happening......I will try it tomorrow.......in stages lmao.
Tonight I tried a different combo of one T3 and one Advil to help me sleep. This was the best sleep so far. I don’t recall tossing and turning or waking up multiple times so I am going to try that "cocktail" before bed each night.
Friday, June 16, 2023
I put my lasagna plan in motion and like I said I would I did it in multiple stages throughout the day so it wouldn't be AS tiring, but it still was lol. I would brown the beef and onion......take a break, put all the sauce in the pot to simmer.....take a break and so on.....my upper back was so sore by the end of the day, but damn that lasagna was good.
Thank god, the stinger in my arm that I mentioned started after surgery appears to finally have subsided......10 days of that shit was enough to drive me around the bend!
I took the same bedtime cocktail of one T3 and one Advil and I am still only taking them at night so I'm at between 23-25 hours between pills.
One thing I'm noting is the stitches on my right side are starting to itch......a LOT. And while I know in theory, that means they're starting to heal, it's fuckin killing me - the itch is truly almost as bad as the surgery pain itself.
Saturday, June 17, 2023
Today was a pretty boring day. I rested, watched TV, worked on some of these blog posts.
Word of warning, when you're taking Senekot, don’t trust a fart.......assume that you need to get your ass to the toilet because you likely do.......I will just leave that as a warning and not embarrass any of us by going into any further detail.
I had another shower. I am getting pretty good at them and I tried to clean some of the dried blood from my belly button but with the belly button I'm not entirely sure how much is just dried blood and how much is actually stitches so didn’t want to fuck anything up so I stopped and left that alone.
The stitches, through the paper tape, look weird almost like they’ve bled a bit (which I'm sure they have) but because of my horrific painful sneeze I was a bit concerned I did possibly tear some of them. As I have my follow up in a few days and because it’s the same all the way across and not localized anywhere and it doesn’t hurt I am not concerned enough to go into the doctor. Below you can see the weird looking stitches through the tape and just see the drain insertion points.....didn't wanna go full on peep show with you but enough you could see what I'm yammering on about......
The itching I mentioned the other day has increased and so I've started taking some of the Benadryl Liquigels Mom had brought me to help with it and it does seem to be helping thank god.
Same nighttime cocktail of one T3 and one Advil and I'm off to try and sleep. Zzzzzzzzzzzzz
Sunday, June 18, 2023
When we got home at 6pm I went and laid down and I passed the fuck out for 2 hours......I guess I was just that tired.
My stitches are still insanely itchy and now it's on both sides.
Even though I am exhausted and very sore after today I chose to switch out the one T3 and one Advil and try to downgrade to two extra strength Tylenol. I wanted to get off the last of this codeine if possible. I made it through from midnight to 7am with no problems and was quite comfy so I think this is my newest nighttime cocktail now.
Tuesday, June 20, 2023
Second Follow Up Appointment
Got to the mall and it was insanely busy so had to park a little ways away from the door and make my way pin, in the pouring rain......fun.
Had to wait as Dr. Edward’s first surgery went long so I stood around walking back and forth (just to move a bit) and chatting with the receptionist who had recently just had her boobs and arms done and was going to be getting her tummy next so she was asking me about it......what an odd way to make a friend.......I do almost wish I had asked for her number. Would that be weird? Probably.......but hey when you're this age and you connect over weird things then maybe you should just say "hey.....wanna be my friend? we can talk about our tummy tucks".......okay fuck I'm officially a loser.
Once I got into the room the lovely Patty took off my abdominal binder and pads to check how everything was doing, clean it all up and change the tape out finally. She said everything looked amazing so that was exciting.
I told her about the sneeze that almost ended my life and how I was sure I tore every stitch in my stomach out.
Pulling off the tape felt like nothing at all….. and she said everything was healing nicely....despite my brush with death from the sneeze. Whatever I thought was blood (probably was) came off on the tape and the stitches look great and already look like everything is somewhat closed up and healing.
The stitches are absorbable/dissolvable and just naturally absorb into your body as you heal so I can’t even see them as they’re pretty much all gone already
Dr. Edwards came in then and asked how I was doing and said let’s get those things out (pointing at the drains) I said thank god!!!
He did say I had to be super careful or i could end up with accumulated fluid under my skin that they would have to remove with a needle so I had to promise to be a "good girl" and be careful and take it easy - not a lot of movement or bending/stretching.
He told me he wants to see me in another 6 weeks for another follow up and then he was gone as quickly as he came........SHIT I forgot to ask how much skin he cut off.....I had wanted to know how much it weighed LOL. I made a note in my phone calendar with my next appointment date saying don't forget to ask how much skin was cut off hahahahah.
She put the new tape on in chunks 4-5” long. It’s called micropore medical paper tape and you can get in any pharmacy. She said I should change it out every 5-7 days.
Apparently you can do one of two things
1) Medical paper tape covering incisions for 3 months, or,
2) Specialty scar gels for a full YEAR
I asked Patty what her recommendation was and she said she'd been working here for 20 years and while there are many great scar gels on the market and one of the surgeons at this office even had their own brand, they are expensive and you have to use them consistently ever day for a minimum of a full year, vs. the tape which after 3 months has done the same job. She said if it was her, she would stick with the tape - same great results MUCH cheaper cost. Thanks Patty.....SOLD!!
I just ordered it from Amazon. https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B003TXPZ64?psc=1&ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_product_details.
Keep in mind you may not need a giant box like this but hey, it was relatively cheap so......
Patty then took out the drains out. Okay so it didn’t hurt but was a bit uncomfortable when she was pulling them out……they were about 10-12” long so way longer than I thought they were.......I always thought I would accidentally pull them out but I guess there was no possible way for me to do that.
it was almost like when a magician pulls the scarves and they just keep coming…..
The she added a gauze pad covering each drain hole and told me the holes would continue to “ooze” that same fluid (called Serous Fluid) that was going into my drains for a few days while they seal from the inside and if I notice an excessive amount of fluid or if I’m getting the fluid buildup that Dr. Edwards mentioned (she said my tummy would feel “sloshy”) then I should call them and come in.
I asked about the itching and they said continue to use Benadryl as needed and I also asked if Advil or Tylenol was better and was told it's totally persona preference and either one is perfectly fine.
They said I need to keep wearing the abdominal binder or I can switch to a compression garment but I absolutely must wear something to continue to compress everything. This will heal more uniformly and will help to stop any fluid build up as it compresses things and redistributes it to get rid of it.
Found some compression garments on Amazon and they really range in prices from low to very high but they also have such a HUGE range of good and bad reviews so it's hard to tell what is good.
Found one with a mix of mostly good reviews (and some awful) which was $160 and another one which also had it's own mix of really good and some bad reviews for $55 so I have ordered the cheaper one first lol.
Here is the $55 one that I ended up ordering to try first:
https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B0BMP534HL?psc=1&ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_product_details
Here is the $155 one that I almost ordered but decided to try the very similar one that was $100 cheaper first:
PLEASE. PLEASE, PLEASE watch this video at the link for the pricier one. Now I am sorry but I have to insist you watch the video for this one if you are in need of a laugh......thank god I can now laugh again without it hurting so bad. This chick is so adorable in the video, truly lovely but she is having some serious real world trouble putting this thing on and the strap keeps popping off and she's sweating like a mofo trying to do this.....my sister said if this "skinny bitch" is sweatin, the rest of us are fucked......just watch it if you want a laugh.....so cute.
Wednesday, June 21, 2023
Not much to report today.....just waiting on my compression garment to come so I can try that on and make my own funny video......just kidding that won't happen.......I don't think. ;)
I did take before photos of course and then I took a photo before my follow up (I showed you that photo above) but something funny I noticed when comparing the two is that my birthmark is moved.....it used to be directly to the side of my belly button and is now quite a bit lower........makes sense as they stretch your skin down and cut off all the excess, but it's just so odd to actually see it.
I do like having photos to track the progress of things so I will be putting up some photos soon of the original vs. the two weeks mark and then will do more at the 4 week mark etc. etc.
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