Week 2 & Necrosis

This week, I'm awake a lot more. I'm very stiff when getting up or sitting down. My range of motion on the left side is finally improving-I can almost lift my arm horizontally to my shoulder, but it is SO tight and painful. My right side continues to improve.

I see the plastic surgeon again twice. The first visit, he is growing more concerned about my right side healing. There is an area, about the size of a nickel, that just isn't healing well. It's discolored and almost has a scab. He seems to be OK with the left side. I can tell that he is very concerned because of the amount of time he is spending just looking. No words, nothing. Just looking. I'm getting a sinking feeling.

He tells me & Ward that he's going to leave the drains for now (Dang it!) and that we need to put a new antiseptic cream on the incisions. He hands us a tube of something and schedules me to see him late that week.

We put this new gel on like clockwork. It's making the bandages stick, so Ward had to get a different kind of gauze to put on. It's not getting any better.

I'm decked out in some jeans, make-up, & jewelry when I go back to see Dr. Appel. I felt really good that day, but I was scared at what he would say. I get in there and he starts looking again. This time, he tells me that he believes that it's just not going to heal like this. He says that he is going to try some debridement on the area. He leaves to get a pic, scalpel, and other tools. He comes back and starts digging at my right side. I can't feel a thing-I'm still numb from surgery. But I can hear it. UGH. He scrapes away all the dead stuff, trying to reveal viable, healing skin.

He does this a little bit to the left side to "clean it up" a bit. After he is finished, he tells me that my right side isn't healing deep down in the tissue. He is going to have to remove it. He doesn't want to have me put under general anesthesia again nor make a huge "surgical" ordeal out of this. We all talk about it and decide that it would be best to do an official, surgical debridement in an outpatient, surgical setting at the same-day surgery place in his building. Although he felt like he could do this in his office, he would feel better (and so would I) if he performed this in a sterile setting. We set it for Monday, Nov 21. It would be done under local anesthesia, and by the way, it would probably be safe to leave the drains in. (AHHHH!)

In the meantime, I was able to visit my office after this appointment and my middle daughter's school. They all looked shocked to see me. It was wonderful to get out and see people! I felt good getting outside, but it wore me out. I still have trouble realizing that I had major surgery just a couple of weeks ago.

The picture (of my right side) below was taken after he scraped (debridement). It's not a pretty picture, but necrosis isn't a pretty thing. Oy vey. I'm so thankful I have no feeling there.