October 28, 2002 - 1:19 pm
On request from JenBen, here’s the synopsis on the boob thing.
10/01 – discover a little bump on the bottom of my left boob. Since I’d just had a baby, I thought it might be a plugged duct or something.
3/02 – bump still there. I ask my OB about it who sends me to see a surgeon. Get a mammogram and an untrasound which show a nodule. Surgeon says there’s less than 5% chance it’s malignant, suggests we wait 6 months and see how it looks then.
early 9/02 – mammogram, ultrasound, etc. Bump still there, surgeon suggests removing it in a procedure called excisional biopsy. I have the surgery on the 10th. Pathology says tissue is benign.
mid 9/02 – the wound isn’t healing well. There’s necrotic tissue in the middle and dying tissue all around the incision.
early 10/02 – surgeon suggests that I have another surgery to remove the necrotic tissue, clean up the edges of the wound, and bring them together. I agree and surgery is done.
mid 10/02 – some of the steristrips start to come off and I notice the incision is repoening. There’s a dime sized hole in the bottom of the scar that looks deep. I call the doctor at night and he tells me to come in the next morning. Later that evening I put the 1 year old in bed and got tangled up in the blanket and crib rail and feel a sudden pain. The next morning the wound is about 2.5 inches tall and 1.5 inches wide and so deep I literally expect to see my rib bones.
The doctor said that we need to have a wet to dry dressing, which involves packing the wound with saline soaked gauze and changing it daily. I go in to Wound Care every day to have this done.
Last week – the surgeon said I’m a good candidate for a Vacuum Assisted Closure and asks Wound Care to evaluate me for that purpose. They concur, and tomorrow I will hopefully be fitted with my little portable suction device. It will hopefully greatly reduce healing time.
That’s all so far! I’ll post more when I know it.