Lucky thirteen…no triskaidekaphobia here.
It’s now been four weeks since my surgery and things are really going pretty well aside from the issues with my incision.
The biggest news is that I returned to work on Tuesday. I was lucky in that, Monday being Memorial Day, I had an extra day to recover. But on Tuesday I got up earlier than I have in quite a while and headed to work.
I’m lucky that because of the nature of my work nothing is allowed to pile up so aside from jobs I’d normally tackle at the beginning of the week there really was nothing to deal with besides a full email inbox.
It was a busy day as I also had an early morning PT appointment and follow up at the surgeon’s office to check my incision.
Here’s the full scoop about work. While I did have to leave for the appointments I put in an eight hour day with no ill effects. I was tired at the end of the my workday which I find understandable. Normally I’d have a bit more get up and go and would probably have bicycles a few miles, showered, and headed out again. But my usual energy hasn’t quite come back. Still I only had a short nap and did head out in the evening to take care of some errands and stuff. All good.
In short, work is not going to be a problem. I more than recovered enough for it and I’m glad to have something to do. I was going a bit stir crazy last week.
My PT appointment was good. As far as I can tell I’m improving all the time and just need to keep plugging away. It’s been suggested that I begin stationary cycling and build myself back up to an hour or so. That shouldn’t really be a problem as I’m pretty sure thirty minutes or so won’t be a problem. I’m going to see what, if anything, I need to do to get back into the gym here at work: boy am I glad we have one.
After PT I headed back to work and then turned around and headed back out to see my surgeon’s assistant about my incision. As you’ll recall it hasn’t healed and I have a couple of spots where the incision never joined properly and I essentially have ulcers there. One is larger than the other.
Both were discharging till recently, though there was no pus or worse. I think the term is serous discharge. Basically fluid and dead cells and such. There has never been any aroma that I’d associate with infection.
In any case I’ve finished my course of antibiotics and the reddening around the areas is much lessened and things are much drier. I’ve continued with the the wet-to-dry dressing and results seem to be good, though I have to admit I’m not happy about it all.
I’ve also been told that cleaning the area daily with iodine or hydrogen peroxide would be good. I have the latter and started that last night in addition to regular bathing (and patting not scrubbing the wound).
My surgeon dropped by while I was there and told his assistant to debride the wounds, though in fact there wasn’t really anything to remove that wasn’t coming up with the dressings. I was then given a whole lot more supply materials, various gauze sizes and more tape. I mentioned that I’d had trouble with some of the tape tearing my skin when I followed the directions I’d been given last week.
I was given different tape and told that I didn’t need to use anything like the amount I’d been instructed to use last week. While it would be nice if everyone were on the same page I can understand why the tech might have been a bit overly careful. With the new instructions I haven’t had any issues and won’t have to buy the expensive blue tape I mentioned before – which did work just fine by the way.
I go back in two weeks for my six week follow up. That is, of course, unless I notice changes in the incision and have to go in quicker. It looks like I was on top of things this time as I mentioned things quickly and never developed a full blown infection.
Enough of that. I’d rather mention something that really shows I’m making progress…
I’m getting around the office without a cane! Yes! I can walk normally. In fact I can walk the block to the local Starbucks without a problem. I’m not going to do longer walks than that without a cane but it’s great to be able to use both hands for a change! I may even be able to get back to photography soon as it really does require two hands to use a camera well.
All in all I’m satisfied with my progress. The replacement itself is working great as far as I know or can feel. My muscles continue to loosen and get stronger, swelling and hurting less. My incision is, darn it, not making me happy, but it is improving though not as fast as I’d like. Oh well, that’s reality for you.
Aloha!