We went to see the surgeon this morning. She took the wound vac dressings off and cut off all the dead tissue that was on my chest. The vacuum will work better without it there. She thought it looked good and sent me home packed with gauze again. The nurse came by this afternoon and spent an hour hooking me up to the vac again. She also said it looked good. "Beefy" was her word, and I am more than a bit grossed out by that, but if she's happy, I'm happy. I'm also happy because with all that tissue debrided I don't stink nearly as bad. I still don't smell great - I can't wear deodorant or shower right now, but that tissue was waking me up with the stench and there was nothing I could do about it. Now cleaning up with baby wipes seems to be handling the job OK.
The cats are completely obsessed with the tubing and the machine. It makes funny, unpredictable noises (kind of like a coffee percolater) and as it pulls drops of liquid through the tubing the cats watch and chase them. The tubing is strong and replaced completely every couple of days so I'm not worried about it. It's just gross and funny to watch.
We also drove into the city yesterday to see the plastic surgeon. He said he agreed with everybody else that we just did the surgery too close after chemo and thinks it will be fine if we delay it for a few months after my next course. So he wants to see me again a month after I'm done with it and then we'll look at a real schedule.
So, making a couple of large assumptions about how long I have left on the vac and that I'll respond OK to chemo, if everything goes OK I'll probably be ready to start chemo the last week in March or early April and be done around the end of June. I'll need a few weeks to recuperate from that but should be able to go back to work at the end of July, and then take a much shorter leave (probably 8-12 weeks) for reconstruction in the fall. I can live with that.
I'm finally feeling able to start dealing with wedding stuff again. I'll be putting some time in on that this weekend, I hope.
The cats are completely obsessed with the tubing and the machine. It makes funny, unpredictable noises (kind of like a coffee percolater) and as it pulls drops of liquid through the tubing the cats watch and chase them. The tubing is strong and replaced completely every couple of days so I'm not worried about it. It's just gross and funny to watch.
We also drove into the city yesterday to see the plastic surgeon. He said he agreed with everybody else that we just did the surgery too close after chemo and thinks it will be fine if we delay it for a few months after my next course. So he wants to see me again a month after I'm done with it and then we'll look at a real schedule.
So, making a couple of large assumptions about how long I have left on the vac and that I'll respond OK to chemo, if everything goes OK I'll probably be ready to start chemo the last week in March or early April and be done around the end of June. I'll need a few weeks to recuperate from that but should be able to go back to work at the end of July, and then take a much shorter leave (probably 8-12 weeks) for reconstruction in the fall. I can live with that.
I'm finally feeling able to start dealing with wedding stuff again. I'll be putting some time in on that this weekend, I hope.
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