I'm up and walking around now, and my skin graft is continuing to heal. I do have to remember to take it easy which is really hard for me because I'm kind of an all or nothing type of person. I'm suppose to increase my activity slowly until I get back to normal, but I keep having to remind myself to slow down because I forget that I still have to tend to my leg. It looks really good most of the time, but if I overdo it by walking or standing on it for too long it does swell a little. What is different now is that the swelling does go down when I elevate my leg unlike before I had the surgery so I take that as a really good sign. I know this is going to take time and I am hopefully that the result in the end will make it all worth it.
I will be posting pictures shortly. I just wanted to let the graft heal some more so it would look a little more pleasant for you guys, but I know I would have liked to see how my scars and ankle would look before all of this, and that is why I am more than willing to share them with you! What a journey this has been, and it's only halfway down. It's been more than I expected as I expressed in my last post, but it is definitely going to be worth it in the end. As more time passes I continue to heal. I was overwhelmed at the beginning, but as the days go by I can tell that my leg is not the same as it was the first week of this year.
I had my post op appointment yesterday and it went well. My surgeon was happy with the progress that has been made in the grafted areas and was impressed with how much my tight stretched skin has softened already. She believes that it will continue to get better as the months pass, but I'm not going to lie.. it's hard to fully trust it. I have lived for so long being scared to go more than a few hours without any compression and having to work every day to try to loosen up my tight and aching leg. I haven't worn a compression garment since the surgery and every day I am up walking around on it more and more. The craziest part is my leg isn't any more swollen than it has been since the surgery, and my leg isn't being weighed down by the stiff soreness I would expect to feel after a day of doctors appointments and grocery shopping. I'm feeling the most pain at the bottom of my feet because I'm still getting use to walking again after 3 weeks of strict bedrest. At this point the doctor has told me to just keep working up to my normal activity, and that's what I intend to do! Things are looking up, and I'm glad I get to share my experience with the lymphedema community as well as family and friends. The second surgery went well. They didn't end up having to take another skin graft. The swelling had gone down enough that they were able to just cut the bad skin off and pulled the rest of the skin together to stitch. The surgery only lasted a couple hours so it really was no big deal.
I started dangling my leg the day after the second surgery, which was Thursday last week, for 5 minutes every 4 hours. Everyday since then I have increased the dangling time by 5 minutes, and yesterday I was able to stand up and hobble around my room for a minute (Baby steps, right?). Today is my 30 minute mark which means I get to go home finally! I'm so excited! It's been a hard few weeks I'm not going to lie. I have been bedridden for pretty much the past 3 weeks which means I haven't been able to get up to go to use the bathroom or take a shower or do anything except watch tv and play card games on the bedside table. This hospital bed and I have gotten well acquainted. I have also gotten to know a lot of the nurses who have taken good care of me, and I am very grateful for them as well as all the people who have come to visit and/or stay with me. With that that being said, today it is officially 1 month since I started this blog and 3 week since my initial surgery. I have to say this experience has been a lot more than I was expecting. I came into this not knowing exactly what it was going to be like or what was going to happen to me (even though I tried preparing myself as best as I could) which was really scary, and I thought the scary part would be over by now but it's really not. I still have a long ways to go. The doctors say I won't know if the surgery worked for at least 3 months, and I still have to have another surgery next year when everything has healed and the swelling has gone down. I wish I would have had a better understanding of what I was getting myself into, but that is not to say I wish I hadn't gone through with it. I'm sure once I can get up on my feet again I will be happy I was strong enough to have done it. |
AuthorHi, my name is Sydney, and I have Primary Lymphedema. I created this blog to share my journey, and I hope that by sharing my story I can help those who are on a similar path. Archives
April 2017
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