This and That

It seems my body was trying to reject the expander. The area around the expander was red and raw and the "stuff" that was on the expander was clumps of white blood cells. Dr. Hicks says he is not saying he won't put another expander in but I get the strong impression he doesn't think it is a good idea. We're not going to do anything for several months. At this point I think I should just have him take out the extra tissue and neaten up the scar. Once the area settles down a little I'll see about getting an interim prosthesis so I am not so lopsided. The infection definitely looks better. I am hoping to get my picc line out tomorrow.

On the lymphadema front I did get my pressure garments and my Jovi Pak to wear at night. The Jovi Pak looks like an oven mitt on steroids. The tips of the fingers are free and it goes all the way up to the axilla. I still don't have my routine down to put the compression garments on during the day. I have a hard time wearing the Jovi Pak all night. It makes the muscles in my upper arm tired and I start feeling claustrophobic. I am trying to increase my tolerance for it. It definitely makes a difference in the amount of swelling.

We are at the end of fall quarter. One result of feeling so lousy is that I have the greater part of my grading done - the big assignments anyway. When I didn't feel like I could handle anything else I could grade papers. Thanksgiving weekend won't be so frantic trying to get grades in.

Where Do We Go From Here?

Surgery went well and I did come home the same day. There was redness around the tissue expander so it looks like it needed to come out. I will find out more details next Tuesday. The redness is already greatly decreased. I don't know if that is because of the clindomycin in the hospital or removal of the expander.

I missed the first dose of the antibiotics because the leads were set up differently than I was used to. Not that I personally mind because the antibiotics make me sick. Since I don't have any of the serious, life-threatening side effects I am supposed to just suck it up and deal with it. I also now have a seriously distorted and ugly scar. I wasn't too concerned about it before because I didn't think we were done with the process. I am not sure where I am with reconstruction now. Is it permanently a no go or what?

Pre-surgery

I saw Dr. Weinstein, infectious disease specialist, today. He was very happy that I am having the surgery tomorrow because he was concerned about my waiting. He didn't indicate that at all when we talked about it. As Shanese says, "score one for the home team". I wasn't so happy that he left the picc line in because he wants me to back on the IV antibiotics tomorrow after I come home. I questioned that since they weren't really working. He feels they were working enough that he wants me on them until we get the results of the cultures back. We also discussed the possibility that my body is allergic to the expander. Bottom line - they don't know what is going on either. I am hoping the surgery and cultures provide some answers.

Expander Blues

There has been no real progress on the cellulitis even with the Invanz and the doctors have decided the expander needs to come out. With only three weeks of the quarter left I wanted to wait until after Thanksgiving. They agreed to that as long as I stayed on antibiotics. After that decision was made Nan and Shanese e-mailed me their plan to cover for me so I could go ahead and schedule the surgery.

I was speechless, stunned and totally grateful. They have been awesome all along but this went above and beyond the call of duty. It has been a real struggle to keep going. The IV antibiotics give me a permanent headache. I am half nauseated all the time - not enough to throw up or take anything but enough to feel yucky. My muscles and joints have been increasingly painful. It was a major task to walk in and out of campus.

I called Dr. Hicks office yesterday and left the message that if he thought the expander really needed to come out I wanted to go ahead and get it scheduled. So surgery is scheduled for next Thursday. I stopped all antibiotics today. Yeah! No benadryl to make me sleepy. I could stay up past 8:00 cause I didn't feel wiped out. Status quo on the joints & muscles but at least they are not worse.

Now I just need to get all my grading done. I have made good progress this weekend.