Day 64

64 days since my surgery (2 months)

The scabs where the drains were are still really hard and crusty. The one on the right side actually started looking wet and stuck to my gauze and came off. I called the nurse at the Cardiac office and went in today to see her to make sure it’s OK. 

She said they’ll take a long time to heal, but they’re OK. She also looked at the top of my incision where the suture knot had come out. 

I asked her if that’s gonna heal nice like the rest of the incision and she said it might not. Which is not great because now it’s like a little round hole at the top of my incision. (Sigh) She did say I could start using the silicone strips but not on the top of the incision because it’s still closing. She said it should eventually close and she checked it to make sure it’s not “tunneling.“ It’s not - and she said it’s healing fine.

She gave me some hydrogel to put on the scabs to make sure they stay soft and moist. When I took the Band-Aids off at the end of the day, it was really gross. It also smelled really funky, so I don’t know how much I want to use that hydrogel.

Now that the right scab is falling off, the left one which is larger and grosser looking is still there protecting what’s underneath, but you can tell it’s coming off. I’m not looking forward to that, but I’m hopeful that that means it’s healing better.

I have a lump at the bottom of my incision and one in the middle, she told me that it is scar tissue. I had googled it and was worried it was a seroma. She said no it’s just scar tissue and it may or may not go away.  It feels like a hard bony lump when I press down there. 

The lump at the top of the scar is going down, but I could still feel something when I rub my hand from left to right it’s like there’s a hill in the middle of my chest. She said it’ll go away, but may never go away all the way. It’s certainly better than it was when I left the hospital. But that lump was more tissue, and this feels like bone.

A lot of this is stuff they just don’t tell you, and the only reason I went to see her is because I kept asking her about it. I’m really surprised they don’t do wound checks. I saw the Cardiac surgeons two weeks after surgery and haven’t really seen them since.

Day 23 - Suture Knot Issues

Today I woke up and I noticed that at the top of my incision it looked more red and was like it was bleeding. I took a picture and sent it to the NP at the surgeons' office. She got back to me told me that’s my suture knot. 

In addition to gluing the outside of my skin, they stitched up the inside from the bottom to the top and the suture knot at the top is where they tied it off. 

She said it may poke through the skin and keep bleeding from time to time, but that it looked OK.  I can put a piece of gauze or a bandage over it.

I could actually feel something sticking out when I was washing it in the shower, and I asked if it would dissolve and she said yes, but not for another few months.

This is the kind of thing I kind of wish I knew in advance. Because they told me I was glued shut. Nobody said anything about a suture knot. 

I’m guessing the suture knot is why there’s the lump at the top of the incision. I know they told me that that’s why they closed it off. I’m also wondering if as the swelling of the lump is going down, it’s somehow impacting the suture knot?

**WARNING** Gross photo of suture knot bleeding.

Do not scroll down if you do not want to see this photo. It is gross.

|

|

|
|
|
|

|

|

|

|

|

|

|
|
|
Last chance to stop scrolling.

|

|
|
|

|
|
|
|
|
|

|

|

|
|
|
|

You can see it is bleeding at the top, and there is a hard plastic piece I can feel there, too,