Well I had 6 more operations since I last wrote, making my total 26 operations. But this time I have good news. The surgeres were successful! What's even more exciting is that part of that success was getting me intubated successfully and they did! No complications occurred in the process either. It was a complete success. And all the grafts look good. Well, the one on my mouth only partially took but it still looks good. Part of it has died and will just sluff off. It's unfortunate that it wasn't a 100% take though so it may have to be regrafted...again.
My time in the hospital went much better this time. The first day, however, was excrutiating. The resident who was in on the surgery did not write good enough pain meds for me for post surgery so i was in horrible pain that brought me to tears so they very swiftly got me on a dilaudid PCA, which I should have been on in the very beginning. But after they got me hooked up to that, my pain got much better and they really listened to me this time regarding my pain. In the past they have just put me on pain meds that I have been on for two years so I'm very tolerant to them but this time they switched up my pain meds and ordered a much higher dose so I was much more comfortable this time around.
I was in the hospital for 5 days and left on the 6th, which was earlier than expected so everythign went really well. The grafts on my breasts look good and the z-plasty's on my left arm look good also. In case you're wondering, a z-plasty is where they cut the skin literally in a "z" shape and just rearrange the skin, instead of taking off the skin and grafting it. They ended up having to do four z-plasty's on my left arm because of the contractures.
So I am home now and doing ok. Pain is under control and I'm fairly comfortable. The only parts I really hate are bath time, cause it hurts, and having to be in the house all the time cause it gets boring. We have to do wound care once a day and it takes about an hour and a half so that gets a little tiresome after awhile.
So overall, I am very happy, except for my mouth that wasn't a 100% take. I have a follow up appointment with my doctor on the 14th so we'll see what he wants to do about it. Hopefully everything else, however, will look good to him.
2 comments:
Sarah, I just caught up on all your blogs. I didn't realize there were so many. Love reading them! Glad that "success" is still the "word of the day" regarding these last surgeries and overall you seem pretty happy with the results. What about that milkshake??
I'm really proud of you, Sarah! You've endured more pain than most of us will ever experience in a lifetime. AND you've reached out to us through Facebook and this blog to share all that you're going through. Both of these things are to be applauded! Keep posting. Someday you'll have this to look back on, and see how far you've progressed in your healing.
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