I've been away for a little while because I've had a complication with the surgery. Nothing terribly serious but still very uncomfortable and worrysome.
About 3 days ago, 8 days post-surgery, my abdominal wall, or to put it plainly, my stomach started to feel itchy. Very, very itchy. So itchy I couldn't stand it! The only way I could get enough relief in order to sleep was laying sideways but slightly on top of the wounds that were the most itchy.
However, the next morning, day 9, the surgical tape had fallen off 2 the wounds. I panicked! One was still slightly open, the other was closed, but the surrounding tissue on both looked red and irritated and it was hot. I decided I was going to wait before calling the doctor's office and try to care of the wounds myself. I figured if I called they would just tell me to go to the hospital and I wasn't ready to go back so soon. So, knowing that I'm quite good at taking care of wounds, I cleaned them with alcohol and applied Neosporin 3 times a day. I attempted to cover them with band-aids to protect them, but that just irritated them more so I left them open to air out. As the day progressed I found that I was compensating with my upper chest, shoulders and neck to keep my abdominal wall extended and prevent my stomach folding because it hurt. Because of compensating, by the end of the day the pain in my neck and shoulders was unbearable. I was exhausted. I went to bed with an icepack and was asleep by 9pm!
*Note: When I say the wound was slightly open, I mean slightly, it was not a gash, nor a puncture wound. However, in Ehlers--Danlos we run the risk of dehiscence, were surgical wounds split open, not just immediately after surgery, but even years after surgery. Because this wound was even slightly open, there was a legitimate risk of this type of complication.
On day 10, at exactly 8:30 am I called the surgeon's office. The receptionist too a message and said the nurse would call me back. At 1pm the nurse had not called me back. I decided that it was time to take action. I called my primary care physician, who first recognized and diagnosed me with the Ehlers-Danlos and asked him to evaluate the incisions. Ironically, he said the wound itself was healing well, however, I was having an allergic reaction to the surgical tape! WHAT????? He showed me the perfectly square area surrounding the incision that was irritated, that's why the tape fell of! He told me not to use alcohol on it anymore which might irritate it anymore, just soap water, and Neosporin no more than twice a day, just to keep it moisturized and avoid the dehiscence risk and allow it to be aired out.
I spoke with the surgeon's nurse around 3:30 pm and let her know about my conversation with my PCP. She mostly agreed with it. I told her my biggest concern was dehiscence related with Ehlers-Danlos. She understood and also asked "had you been treated with the Steri-strips before?" I said no, and explained that for the spine fusion glue had been used. She said she would add the new allergy to the Steri-strips on my file which updates the hospital too (all of UC), and said I should let others in the future know that I have an allergy to the surgery tape. She would also put me on theNurse Practioner's client list for Monday as "to call" so that she would follow up with me because I was a high-risk patient; but if the wound opened during the weekend, I should call their office number and select the option to contact the doctor for a medical emergency.
Right now I'm in a lot of pain, but not becuase of the surgery, it's more of an exhausted pain (new pain scale definition) I can feel it in my shoulder, neck, chest and lower back...so everywhere other than my stomach :) I'm having to use all of these accesory muscles and it's wearing me down. I'm generally all-around-downright-miserable and that's making me miserable. As for my mood, I'm pretty crabby and somewhere between wanting to be left alone to die (not literally) and not wanting to be left alone becuase I would think too much about my pain. As for my family...when mamma ain't happy ain't nobody happy!
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