Overall I'm doing pretty well, except I had a small setback a couple weeks ago. I strongly suggest that you not google images for wound maceration. It
ain't pretty, and I've got the evidence across about 4x6 inches of my
belly. Basically if you don't get bandages changed fast enough the skin around the wound can stay wet and start breaking down. I've been using this super fancy Mepilex bandages that are about $20 each because they are super absorbent, stay on really well, but don't hurt at all to remove. For a few weeks we were down to only changing them once a week. So Bob went out of town for a long weekend for work and I thought I'd be fine for four days.
I was wrong. I can't change these bandages myself. It started burning the night before he came back, and I we removed it as soon as he was in the house, but the damage was done and it's ugly. I would guess that it has lengthened the amount of time I'll spend with this thing by about a month.
For the last couple of weeks it's been consistently warm enough to just not wear clothes, so I've been doing that during the day to keep it open to the air and it's starting to dry out, but it's still too goopy to sleep unbandaged at night.
There's also a hole in my left side where there was a surgical drain, and that's never healed. At this point I think that's mostly because it's exactly under the bottom band of my bra. So I've been instructed not to wear one for a few weeks until it heals over. So I'm leaving the house for physical therapy and grocery shopping and that's about it until it has some stable skin over it.
I'm into my fourth week of physical therapy. Today I bench pressed 8 pounds. Seriously. It was work. Four weeks ago I couldn't hold one pound weights over my head without legitimate fear that I would lose control and drop them. Today I did it with a four pound weight in each hand, while laying down on a foam roller that ran down the length of my spine (doing that opens up the chest more than I can do on my own yet, and forces me to engage more muscles in my back to balance). When I can do ten pounds in another few weeks I'll be ready to go back and get on the Cybex at the gym. When I can do five sets of ten crunches and my skin is healed on my belly, I'll be ready to start pilates again. I'm still not sure when that will be.
My physical therapist is great. I met her a year ago when I was looking for help with my knee and she was fantastic then, so I requested her this time around. It was really nice to just step back into that relationship even though we're doing a totally different thing this time. She knows me and what motivates me, and we talk books when I'm resting between sets. I expect I'll be seeing her for several more months, even beyond when I start pilates. I'm gaining strength but still can't do really basic things like get a tight t-shirt off over my head. On is no problem, but I can't stretch my arms and shoulders enough to get it back off without pulling an arm in through the armhole, which is destructive to shirts and sports bras. But I'm a lot closer now than I've been since the original mastectomy in 2013.
My oncology checkin was a few weeks ago. I'm all good there, except my liver numbers were a little off because I've been taking such high doses of NSAIDs for so long. She wanted me off of them for a while, so I took a break. I think I've taken four in the last three weeks when the wound pain got to be too much to bear. I'm taking gabapentin (technically a seizure med) for the nerve pain associated with healing and that has helped. I don't want to take it forever though - it's one of those meds that could give me seizures if I don't step down carefully when it's time to go off. I don't like being that reliant on something that could hurt me if I miss a pill.
So, mostly good. Wish it was happening faster. Honestly though, the relief at being able to walk around the house without a bandage during the day is phenomenal. It is a very small thing in the face of everything else that is happened, but having some sort of tape or bandage stuck in your pubes 24x7 for eight solid months is an annoying slog all its own. Glad that bit's over.
I was wrong. I can't change these bandages myself. It started burning the night before he came back, and I we removed it as soon as he was in the house, but the damage was done and it's ugly. I would guess that it has lengthened the amount of time I'll spend with this thing by about a month.
For the last couple of weeks it's been consistently warm enough to just not wear clothes, so I've been doing that during the day to keep it open to the air and it's starting to dry out, but it's still too goopy to sleep unbandaged at night.
There's also a hole in my left side where there was a surgical drain, and that's never healed. At this point I think that's mostly because it's exactly under the bottom band of my bra. So I've been instructed not to wear one for a few weeks until it heals over. So I'm leaving the house for physical therapy and grocery shopping and that's about it until it has some stable skin over it.
I'm into my fourth week of physical therapy. Today I bench pressed 8 pounds. Seriously. It was work. Four weeks ago I couldn't hold one pound weights over my head without legitimate fear that I would lose control and drop them. Today I did it with a four pound weight in each hand, while laying down on a foam roller that ran down the length of my spine (doing that opens up the chest more than I can do on my own yet, and forces me to engage more muscles in my back to balance). When I can do ten pounds in another few weeks I'll be ready to go back and get on the Cybex at the gym. When I can do five sets of ten crunches and my skin is healed on my belly, I'll be ready to start pilates again. I'm still not sure when that will be.
My physical therapist is great. I met her a year ago when I was looking for help with my knee and she was fantastic then, so I requested her this time around. It was really nice to just step back into that relationship even though we're doing a totally different thing this time. She knows me and what motivates me, and we talk books when I'm resting between sets. I expect I'll be seeing her for several more months, even beyond when I start pilates. I'm gaining strength but still can't do really basic things like get a tight t-shirt off over my head. On is no problem, but I can't stretch my arms and shoulders enough to get it back off without pulling an arm in through the armhole, which is destructive to shirts and sports bras. But I'm a lot closer now than I've been since the original mastectomy in 2013.
My oncology checkin was a few weeks ago. I'm all good there, except my liver numbers were a little off because I've been taking such high doses of NSAIDs for so long. She wanted me off of them for a while, so I took a break. I think I've taken four in the last three weeks when the wound pain got to be too much to bear. I'm taking gabapentin (technically a seizure med) for the nerve pain associated with healing and that has helped. I don't want to take it forever though - it's one of those meds that could give me seizures if I don't step down carefully when it's time to go off. I don't like being that reliant on something that could hurt me if I miss a pill.
So, mostly good. Wish it was happening faster. Honestly though, the relief at being able to walk around the house without a bandage during the day is phenomenal. It is a very small thing in the face of everything else that is happened, but having some sort of tape or bandage stuck in your pubes 24x7 for eight solid months is an annoying slog all its own. Glad that bit's over.
