Wednesday, June 2, 2010

Week one with my new legs

Have I mentioned yet that I am in love with the scar on my tibia now? *happy tears* When I took down the tegraderm yesterday I was totally surprised to see that it had been moved laterally about half an inch.  It's just not in the same spot and that thrills me to no end.  In this case, different is better.  The divot is gone and with it the reminder of the horrible pain I suffered through with that third ACL attempt.  That alone makes this surgery worth it.  There are still steri-strips covering the incision so I can't see the whole thing, but yeah, happy tears.

As for the legs!  I still have stitches, so some of it is a bit ew and I also (obviously) have swelling and bruising so it's a little early to tell...  But maybe?  They might not touch?  We'll see.  I can see however that when I am laying on the bed with my knees up, my thighs do not puddle on my tummy.  That was something I actually just noticed today and I cried happy tears at that too.

When I see him next week I want to ask about the dimensions of the skin he removed as I am sure they measured it.  I'm kinda curious about the ccs of fat as well. All that excess that was hanging off my upper thighs is gone.  It's hard to tell because it looks subtle with all the swelling, but when I stand and walk I can feel the difference.  I can definitely see where he lipo'd the side and back of my knees.  Looks like my legs look when I'm at my lowest weight. ;c)

Let's see what else... I was surprised to see that the freckles I expected to have moved are basically in the same place on the top of my thigh.  I think this is because the skin that got moved gets stretched from the back?  I need to ask about that as I am not really sure.  The steri-strips on my bum are starting to aggravate me with the compression garment on.  They are peeling from the corners but one thing I have learned is you leave those alone.  Unfortunately I had to peel off a few to medicate the jock itch.  That's much better today too.  Amazing what sun and some anti-fungals can do.

I went back and re-read my blog from last summer.  Day 10 was in fact the day it fell apart.  My issues last summer had more to do with not holding together and swelling than they had to do with germs.  I am comforted by that.   However I am still constantly reassuring myself that this is going just fine and will continue to do so.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I want to let you know that your posts are an inspiration to me. I've gone back over your past surgeries (the one's I'm facing shortly) and finding some hope that I'll come out the other end of all of this...

Thank you.

Unknown said...

Good luck Kate! I went into it thinking everything would be fine. Obviously it wasn't but it worked out okay in the end, just took a while.

My PS last summer said that even though I did not have gastric bypass surgery, my tissues had at one point still been starved and was the reason I did not hold together well. I hope you have a good surgeon. I've been reading over on the ObesityHelp board.... Makes me glad I live in Boston!