3 weeks out out from Surgery as of yesterday, and mostly doing pretty darn good.
I walked today for 45 minutes, around the big block of my neighborhood, which is my longest single walk yet. And I could easily walk farther if only my back didn’t hurt so much, as it is so incredibly out and in pain. They tell me it was from being in a horrible position on the operating table for 5 hours. The amazing thing is I couldn’t have done that without stopping 3 times before the surgery, so i am vastly improved on that front.
My chiropractor said he could he adjust my back with that little adjustment hammer after 4 weeks, but I will probably wait until 6 week when my sternum is supposed to be mostly healed. Of course only if I can take the pain for that long. My back pain is the worst part right now!
My lungs are also doing better, with most of the liquid out I think. For the first time in weeks when Kelly beat my back last night and I coughed, I didn’t go into a deep hack, but had to keep coughing on my own.
Now for the bad, and that would be the wounds from my chest tubes. My left one was getting painful yesterday, and I finally took of the steri strips and it was way too moist and still open, so I have had to leave it open, and it mostly will dry up and close, and stop hurting. The problem is even walking I sweat so much that it got wet and opened up again, and is just slowly drying out and closing up against now. I am having to clean it with betadine and alcohol allot, but as of yet it is not infected. Just need to keep it closed and dry so it will heal!
You can see the one on the right is yellow. That is the scab when it is wet and has opened up again.
The one on the right also has been leaking on and off, but it is not puss, so it is not infected. Likely it is because the scabs are so incredibly deep, and they need to move out of the way to be able to heal underneath, so it is likely leaking to try and push some of the scab out so it can continue to heal.
Honestly the chest tub holes are the worst part right now. It seems like not only did they not tie the initial stitches tight enough, but they took them out after only 2 or 3 days, when they should have been in for a week, so I think that is what is causing most of the issues.
The hardest part right now is the low sodium diet. It is actually horrifically frightening to look at ingredients in a grocery store and see just how much salt is added to just about everything we eat! There is so much salt around that they say a 3500 MG diet of sodium is low sodium, though I have likely been doing under 1000 mg. And the one real help has been Mr Dash seasonings (in many flavors) as it has no sodium and does add a whole lot of flavor. Otherwise I don’t know what I would do. And really I fucking want a RUEBEN!!!!!!