Day two is coming to a close. I'm still surprised at how much this is taking out of me, because after a couple of hours I'm whipped and ready for a nap. I'm still having hot flashes and surges of emotion when I want to cry for no reason at all, but Les is very supportive and even bought a couple of new fans to help deal with the hot flashes. My neck is far more swollen than it was yesterday, and is red, itchy and warm to the touch beyond the area where the tegaderm was. Its weeping a little serous fluid as well. I'm not sure if its all buildup of serous fluid inside my neck, continued allergic reaction, or early infection. I'm of course anxious about infection, but I would think if it were getting infected it would hurt, and the sensation is more of heat, pressure and tightness (plus insane amounts of itching) than pain. I'm hoarse, but I can swallow alright and have no trouble breathing.
My corsets arrived today from England, so Les strapped me in and I rocked a steel boned tightlacing corset with my Frankenstein stitches. Of course, tight corset and tight swollen neck did make me feel a little claustrophobic, but I really wanted to wear one of the corsets today. :) That said, I was pretty happy to unlace when we got home from errands at Fry's.
The serous drainage from my neck was getting crusty and painful, so I took my first shower, carefully washing my hair and only getting an indirect spray of clean water on my neck for a few seconds. That was enough to rinse away the crusties, and after the shower I gently patted dry and applied some hydrocortisone cream on the red areas, careful to stay away from the incision itself. That got a light application of bacitracin, as per MD order. Hopefully the swelling will start to go down soon! I'm also really hoping its not infected and just still irritated from the tegaderm. I took benadryl last night to kill the itch because I was afraid of scratching my incision during my sleep. I'll be doing it again tonight because its still pretty itchy. If its not turning the tide tomorrow I'll be getting it checked for infection because I do NOT want a nasty infection of my surgical site. Now, I'm off to try and find a comfy sleeping position and rest my neck from my five ton head.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment