July 18, 2016
Just when I thought things were going smoothly, I discovered multiple holes and 1 pimple-looking-bump on my incision lines. Apparently, my body has decided to reject some of the internal permanent sutures and has begun spitting them out of my skin !!! Except one of my sutures got stuck underneath my skin and created a suture-abscess on my breast.
I first noticed the abscess while changing my incision tape on Tuesday evening; but I didn’t think much of it because it didn’t look irritated/red & and it didn’t hurt. However, by Friday evening, it looked very irritated, and I was afraid I may have had an infection under the skin. So I immediately took a picture of the disgusting bump and e-mailed it to one of my favorite nurses at Dr. Soto’s office. She quickly responded to my e-mail and told me to come to the office first thing Monday morning; and in the meantime, to keep a clean, dry gauze pad over the area. She also informed me to not be surprised if the abscess pops and starts oozing blood and puss. Gross right?
Well, that’s exactly what happened by Saturday morning. While doing my breast massages, the abscess popped! Luckily, I had my gauze pads on while doing my massages, and the gauze absorbed a lot of the initial blood and puss. Sorry if this is grossing anyone out – but that’s what-cha get when you sign-up for a big surgery.
Anyways, after I cleaned the area and reapplied some fresh gauze, I informed my favorite nurse via e-mail that it had popped & that I’ll be there first thing Monday morning.
Then what-do-ya-know, by Saturday evening I had popped 3 more sutures. Except this time, it didn’t create an abscess – but it did create three small holes in the incision line in which I could see the suture sticking out of the hole. Again, I’m sorry if this is grossing you out.
Anyways, by Monday morning my favorite nurse had pulled out all the sutures she could see. Strangely enough, she couldn’t see the stitch inside of the hole created by the abscess. She dug around in the hole with her tweezers (ouch), but couldn’t find anything; so she thinks that my body may have spit-it-out when the abscess popped. I sure hope that is the case – otherwise, that hole will have a difficult time healing if there is still a suture stuck inside.
Moving away from the grossness factor, I was finally given the go-ahead to go bra shopping!!! Yey!!! No more ugly medical bra for me !!! So I treated myself to a Victoria Secret shopping spree !!! While out-and-about, I also found myself some new outfits for my new body. All I have to say is DAMN DR. SOTO, you fixed me up real-good. Now when you find me on rate-my-professor.com, I should have a red-hot-chili-pepper-symbol next to my rating because this professor is smoking – haha. Conceded much?
For those of you that were wondering if I was awarded any more privileges besides my freedom from the medial bra, the answers were all “no”.
- Still no lifting the baby.
- Still no swimming until all incisions are healed.
- Still no exercise. Not even 2 lb weights.
- Still no sleeping on my sides.
- Still wear your life-sucking-tummy-binder 24/7
Ugh …. But in 10 days I’ll officially be 6 weeks post-surgery; so hopefully all of these NO’S will turn into “YES”. At least one can hope.
The second undergarment I wear is an oversized, over-padded, Victoria Secret push-up bra. The size I purposely wear is a 34 D – however, my actual cup size is between an A and a B (I’m too big for an A – but – too small for a B). The reason I wear an over-sized bra is because I was a 34 DD while breastfeeding!! I was HUGE!! Possibly a little too huge (if that’s even possible in my husbands opinion). And to go from a DD to an A/B was too drastic of a change – especially since I teach teenagers. I wanted to keep myself looking proportional throughout the school year. Plus, a lot of the tops I wear require a larger chest size to fill out, and I didn’t want to invest money into new tops when my chest size was going to change YET again.