The Great Unveiling

The Gauze Nightmare is over.

Today I went to see my plastic surgeon for a followup, and for him to remove the lovely padded bra I've been sporting for the last week.  It started with him opening up the front velcro closure of the gauze bra.  Immediately I felt a sense of relief and less compressed.  It wasn't like a tourniquet or anything, but it was definitely putting pressure on my skin, not to mention the irritation.

Once the bra and associated gauze were removed, I could see that there were, indeed, gauze pasties that were stitched to my skin.  He began snipping away the gauze and I could feel the scissors on my skin (a good thing!).  He was very happy with the healthiness of the skin and he said that it looked great.  From a layperson's viewpoint, it looks kind of bruised and it's obvious that it's not completely healed, but he's mostly concerned about whether or not the skin graft has taken.  He said it was about 99% healthy.  I'm gonna go ahead and assume 100% doesn't really happen.  Don't ruin it for me.

There are some dissolving stitches where the graft is stitched to my skin, and the whole circle is kind of indented, but I expect that to even out over time.  I can shower again (yay!) and for the next week I just have to keep the area most and covered with these neon yellow strips after I shower.  So, I still have to wear the gauze bra, but at least it's not stuffed with more gauze!

They completely removed the steri-strips from my inner thigh, and that area is feeling pretty good.  There is definitely some subcutaneous "toughness" that I assume is scar tissue.  I hope that gets better because right now I don't feel like I can run or do yoga.  I'm sure it will improve, I guess it's just a matter of when.

I'll see him again in 6 weeks.  For the time being, I have to still be careful to avoid trauma to the area, I have to keep it clean, then dry, then moistened so that the skin graft heals properly.  The stitches will eventually dissolve, and it will look fabulous :-)  During the surgery he also removed a bit of a dog ear on one side, and it looks SO much better.  I am so happy with how it looks now, and I can only imagine that it will look better as time goes on.  Well worth it!