...Continued....

I'm just gonna throw it out there....but that blasted torture trap binder was just the tip of this Titanic size iceberg!!!!

9 DAYS POST-OP...  

 I went into the dr's office and met with one of her partners who was shocked....to say the least....that I was still wearing that torture trap.  Needless to say...we did in fact "ripped that sucker off" and joyfully threw it out. She checked all my blistered and seeping skin from where it had dug into me and said it looked clean & healthy.  She assured me that the roaring pain in my chest & that over-hyper nerves from elbow to elbow (like the arms were bound in broken shards of glass...always a personal favourite sensation) would quickly settle down, but told me to just be patient but if anything changed or concerned me to just call and come back in.  So I spent the next 4 days taking walks and trying to slowly get some mobility back and staying on top of the pain....which, for the record was not getting any better by even a smidge.  Now I am NOT some pain wimp....30 years of migraines almost daily has taught me a ton pain management tricks to help cope without taking pills.  I usually sit at about 6-7 on the "pain scale" on a daily basis...so I just figured out/trained myself to departmentalize the pain and carry on with life..."I have pain...it doesn't have me" decisions a long time ago.

13 DAYS POST-OP...

I noticed, but didn't give it much thought, that I was just really feeling dehydrated even though I was drinking a ton of water...but just couldn't get over that "mouth full of cotton balls" feeling & I noticed that my right (original mastectomy side) chest wall was getting red.  Went to bed that night...(okay...let's be honest...I have been sleeping in a recliner since surgery because of the boa constrictor feeling of my chest & rib cage) and got up to go to the bathroom about 1:30am and realized that there was something running down my body hitting my foot.  Yup...my incision had sprung a leak and it was draining down the front of me!!!!!  Sure freaked me out for a second but it was clear(ish) so I grabbed some Kleenex and called my Homecare nurse.  They said to just keep it covered and come in first thing in the morning...so you can bet that 8:30am I am sitting in the office with the nurse.  She put a dressing on it & noticed that my chest wall was kind of red and warm so she told me to phone my doctor. Then just as I was getting ready to leave she had a hunch to just check my temperature....37.4*c (99.32*F) a very low-grade fever but told me to check it again in 2 hrs at home & to be sure to tell the doctor and call her, the nurse, back & let her know if it changed. So my dear friend (AB Chick) drove me back home & waited while I phoned the doctor, who told me to go directly to emergency!!!  I HATE going to the ER cause 9 times out of 10...they don't find anything and just send you home....always a HUGE waste of time....So I gathered a few things and AB Chick drove me the 30 minutes to the hospital & waited with me till VoR got there.  When they checked it at the ER....less then an hour later...it had jumped to 39.7*C (103.46*F)....THAT GOT THEIR ATTENTION & BAM! I was sent to observation.....maybe this time was gonna be different.  They immediately checked my chest wall which by this point was  so red and really warm...you could feel the heat radiating off it & it had spread a bit from when I had seen the nurse.  So they started taking the usual samples to run tests on including a swab of the fluid that was running down my chest & the blisters.  Next thing I know, an Infectious Disease team show up at my bedside telling me they were working my case & following me closely. I don't remember a ton of details other then...they were admitting me!!!!  Guess this trip to the ER wasn't such a waste

...to be continued...AGAIN