Wanna see something gross?

[fairymelusine]

So, as you may have heard, I've got a hole in my stomach. It's healing, and according to the doctors and the nurse, it's healing fast and well. It's still open, and I'm still exhausted, but it IS getting better. I'm off the Wound Vac this week, and found out yesterday that's a forever thing (originally, they took me off of it because my skin

Comments

[storme]

K, this resonates. (and there is no way I'm looking at the pics!) You have my utter sympathy--I was wondering how the healing was going, as a giant gaping wound takes a long time to close. Glad to know it's healing well and fast, and I'll be very glad for you when you're no longer being so drained by the process of healing and coping with all of this.

[fairymelusine]

Well, that's why I put 'em in a link instead of in the post - I wanted to protect people's delicate sensibilities. It is kinda cool to look at, though.

But thanks - I don't know why I need so much validation about this thing, but I do. I guess it's because I've been back at work pretending that I'm okay so I can keep the money coming in, and so few people see the "and now I can collapse in bed 'cause I'm so tired I'm dizzy" part -- dunno.

[soopageek]

Whoa. So what are the estimates for the time it will take for that to completely skin-over and heal?

[fairymelusine]

They're always vague about that part - "a few more weeks" is what I've been hearing forever. Now that the vac is off, the healing will slow down somewhat - and this may be further slowed a little by the fact that the doctor wants me to use a betadine dressing to keep it from getting infected (betadine can inhibit healing, so I've been instructed to dilute it heavily to try to keep that at a minimum), since the skin irritation from the dressings got bad enough that there is some concern about that sort of thing. That's the trade off about losing the vac - vac makes it heal faster but causes other problems. So now, they can't be sure about the healing time - it won't progress at the same rate as it has been, but it shouldn't be *too* much longer. Whatever that means.

[pondbluebird]

HOLY GOD ALMIGHTY WOMAN!!!!! That hole is a maniac!!! It looks like it can swallow your cat!!
Thank God they have you on the upswing. xo