Photo Journey: Graphic Pictures of the Healing Process
Pictures
Pictures
May 31, 2007: Day of surgery. I didn't take any before pictures as there really wasn't much to see. I had one small opening where the cyst drained and 2 smaller pin holes just under the main hole.
Below are pictures after surgery. The wound itself is stitched closed (you can not see it in the pictures). Then a gauze is actually stitched into my skin to cover up the stitiches. This was to apply pressure, to encourage healing and help the skin stay as flat as possible. This gauze is very thick and I can't sleep on my back. This is a problem for me as that is the only way I can sleep.
Pain, at this point, on a 1 to 10 scale with 10 the highest amount of pain: 10+++++ I had over 100mg of I.V. demerol and that didn't even help. I have fibromyalgia and suffer from migraines. My narcotic medication tolerance is higher than most people. The bruising is from surgery. Click photos to enlarge
June 1, 2007: Day after surgery. Pain Level: 10+++. The gauze is sewn so tight it is pushing my skin up on the top. The bruising is nasty. I remember thinking at this point that the pictures weren't doing the pain justice. I'm taking 2 50 mg tablets (100 mg total) of Demerol every 6 hours. The demerol usually takes an hour to start working and then wears off in an hour. Basically I have an hour of slightly less pain each time I take it. During this time I wear men's boxer briefs for underwear. LOL. I didn't want to ruin any cute underwear over this! The boxers are underwear and shorts in one so it works for lying around the house.
June 4, 2007: The gauze came off. I can finally sleep on my back, which unfortunately is the only way I can sleep. Pain level: 10+. It looks really nasty but at this point I still think the pictures aren't doing the pain justice. The pain is unreal and I have a high pain tolerance.
June 7, 2007: On the 6th day after surgery I have a break through with the pain level. I don't have a picture for that day so I used this one taken on the 7th of June. Pain level: 9.5. While this may not seem like a big improvement, it is huge. The pain really never stopped or lessened until the 6th day. To have the same amount of pain for so long is really tough. I was starting to think it was never going to feel better. The bruises are healing and itching like crazy.
June 13, 2007: The stitches come out today. Here are before and after pictures. Pain level before the stitches came out: 9. After the stitches came out: 8.5. But the day after this pain level would be down to 7-7.5. Having the stitches out made all the difference. But, visually it would seem we went backwards. There is now a hole where the skin didn't close up and we had no idea until the stitches came out. It was a huge shock. Now I will need wound care and a home health care nurse as the wound has to be packed with gauze. Bad news for me! But the pain is better so gotta take the good with the bad. For the first few days I have a Very Good friend help. Here you can see him spraying a 4 by 4 gauze with wound wash saline. That was inserted into the wound. A small gauze was placed over it and a larger pad was placed over that. It was then taped. Below are pictures of the products we used. The home health care nurses use more expensive stuff. One of the best things they brought was a tape called Mefix. No picture here, sorry. But it was great tape. Held well and didn't hurt too much. Apparently it's very expensive.
June 16, 2007: Things are taking an ugly turn. The skin around the edges of the wound is starting to sluff off. It looks horrible. But the pain is totally under control now. Still taking pain meds but not often, usually only at night or when I am busy. I am on disability for Fibromyalgia, Hidradenitis Suppurativa, and Migraines. I don't have to worry about going to work. But honestly if I did, I think I would be okay to go to work at this point. I think it would be a challenge but for anyone who can't take off more than 2 weeks....you may be okay. Granted you will have an open wound that is packed and covered up but the pain is surprisingly minimal. I would still say the pain varies from levels 6-8. But that's me. On my best day without surgery, I never feel better then a 4. So at this point my 6-8 may be like someone elses 2-4. Or not. LOL. Pain is a hard thing to measure.
The picture with the quarter is really clear. Don't worry. We boiled the quarter, lit it on fire and washed it in alcohol. LOL
June 22, 2007: Okay the home health care nurse told me she wanted to give me a wound vac. This is basically a vacuum for your wound. It sucks everything out and helps it stay dryer and heal quicker. I thought I better see the doctor before she ordered this. He says No wound vac. He was mildly appalled that the nurse wanted one. There is some odor to the wound which is totally sick. LOL. And it does have some whitish greenish edges. The doctor said it was normal and he snipped it off. At least I think he did. I couldnt' see. He took these pictures himself. It's a little weird because he literally is holding the wound open while he takes the pictures; that is why the wound looks so big. The QTip is one of the long ones the doctor uses. He tells me that he thinks it will be healed in 2 weeks!!! Um I think that sounds great but is very hard to imagine at this point. He gives me more antibiotics and pain meds.
June 24, 2007: Okay I wanted to take a couple of pictures of the gauze covering the wound and the packing while inside and when it's taken out. The first picture you can see the outer gauze. This guaze lays over the packing. It is stained from the blood and other fluids. The next picture is of the gauze while it's packed into the wound. The dressings are changed every day so it's under 24 hours that it has been in. The next picture is gross. LOL. It's of the packing after it has been taken out. You can see it looks yellowish green. It's not the camera or your screen. It really is yellowish green. There is no odor now that I have been on the antibiotics. That is good news but why does it still look like this? I don't know. I'm thinking positive and hoping that it doesn't mean anything. Time will tell. I'm holding the wound open so you can see deep into. It doesn't really hurt too bad. Hard to imagine but it's mostly discomfort with occassional bursts of pain
June 26, 2007: Is this thing getting any smaller? I can't even tell. As the pain seems to lessen my emotional state seems to worsen. I am really over this whole thing and would like to move on. But it's not over yet. The home health care nurses aren't as clean as I would like. I had my friend come to visit. He helped me with the wound care. I told home health that I would need them again after his visit but they didn't come until I call them. WTF? So now I'm considering practicing doing the packing myself. Is that crazy? Maybe but I find if you want something done right you should do it yourself....except electrical work....that you shouldn't do unless you're sure you know what you're doing....anyway.....hehehehee....The last picture I am not holding the wound open. I have no idea if it's getting smaller. I have another doctor's appointment on Monday July 2. We will see what he thinks. Maybe the next pictures I have my friend take I will ask him to do a shot further out to put it into perspective. I'm not fond of those as you can imagine. Putting my a** on the internet is really embarrassing but hopefully helpful to someone.
***Final Pictures***
Hopefully these will be the final pictures. I don't have a lot to say about these pictures so I will just post them and list the dates. This was a long process that I pray is over for good.
June 30, 2007
July 6, 2007
July 15, 2007
August 17, 2007
I hope these pictures have helped someone or taught someone something. If anything else happens I will post more. I may do a follow up next year. Good luck and be well!!!
