Camilla is our Home Health Nurse. She is sweet, patient, understanding and kind. We had paperwork that had to be filled out and signed. I had the co-pay still to deal with so Camilla called the office and we provided my debit card to cover the co-pay(s). We went over my medical history, who my doctors are, who I see next (my new Radiation Oncologist), do I have another appointment currently scheduled with my PCP, no, but I can get one if I need one. Do I need one? Camilla told me I didn’t need an appointment. She asked me about my “wound” as that is what she has been dispatched to do – wound care. I explained about my two surgeries, the seroma, the drain tube, removal of drain tube, leaking of the boob and discovery of continuing seroma after second surgery, boob farts and here we are now.
Camilla specializes in wound care and was surprised at how little packing “tape” we have been using. Told her we just copied the amount Hubby pulled out that Dr. Goldberg had placed in my “hole”. She advised the wound should be packed with the tape and I would not need to stuff my bra with a Poise pad to absorb the draining fluid. We set up in the bedroom like Hubby and I do, and she removed the previous tape, and using sterile saline solution cleansed the area. She took a picture of the hole. I forgot to ask her for a picture of it! She explored my wound with a sterile swab and measured the open spaces, 6 mm from the 3 o’clock position and 3.5 mm from the 12 o’clock position and that is the extent of the unhealed area inside my boob, and the area that Camilla will now fill with the packing strip. It felt weird when Camilla was exploring inside my boob with the cotton swab, but nothing hurt. She quickly and deftly stuffed the packing strip into my boob and applied a gauze dressing over my now evidently properly stuffed right boob. She will be back tomorrow morning about 8:30 am and we will see how her changes in my packing strip affect the output of serous fluid from my boob.
She is also going to get us all the supplies we really need to get this done her way to make sure my boob heals up quickly. All covered by insurance rather than having to try and track all this down and pay out of pocket. When I asked her about showering she suggested I use Tegaderm over the wound. I then showed her my still red area on my chest from the last Tegaderm bandage I had. And yes, that redness is still there from the first surgery on 3/16. We decided I would try is once, and remove the Tegaderm ASAP so I don’t have a problem with a reaction.
It took a little longer to get all this accomplished than we had anticipated. But Camilla left and we jumped in the car to get Hubby over to his dental appointment. We made it just in time! We’ve had the same dentist for over 20 years. Our kids have all grown up, and we’ve all grown older together. Our dentist was horrified when I called his office last September requesting an emergency cleaning. He was so happy today to see me come in with Hubby. He came out from the patient he was working on just to come and talk with me. Because he is that kind of dentist. He cares about us. He loved my new hair growing and was quick to tease Hubby that I do have more hair than him now. I did tell him it was not so long ago that I had NO hair. We talked about how I have a great shaped head to totally rocked the completely bald look.
After Hubby was done with his cleaning, we headed over to get some Togo’s for lunch to find it was closed down. Not closed as in not open yet, closed down, the restaurant was gone. Well darn! Instead we headed to a diner across the street and we both ordered “breakfast”. After we ate breakfast for lunch, we went to the men’s suit store nearby and went to work on finding Hubby a new suit and shoes. He loves his old dress shoes, he really does, they are so him, they just hurt his feet too much for him to wear them anymore. It’s the soles. He has bad feet and needs extra cushion and soft soles to keep his feet comfortable. I understand completely now with the neuropathy that plagues me. I ordered black velvet tennis shoes to wear with my black dress and floral wrap to the wedding. He found a decent pair of dress shoes with a rubber sole and heel instead of the leather solesand heels like his current dress shoes. I really wish they made a really fashionable men’s dress shoe with the thicker rubber soles for men like my Hubby who need that extra cushion.
Getting excited about the upcoming wedding.
Life is finding comfortable shoes
Shoes, shoes, shoes. I understand completely about finding comfortable yet fashionable shoes. With size 11W feet, finding anything fashionable is hard enough but when you add the desire for comfort, there is nearly nothing to be had. In the summer heat my feet swell and then I can hardly wear anything except Fit Flops. I live in them for several months of the year. The good news is they have decent support considering there are no sides to them like a regular shoe would have. Costco had some cute ladies slip-on canvas with rubber soled shoes, I searched through all the boxes looking for a size 11. Shit! I should have looked at the sign more closely, they are only made up to size 10. With all the women in the world who wear larger shoe sizes, wouldn’t you think they’d go up to a 12? I have a friend who just started a European shoe boutique online, Bells and Becks, named after her children’s nicknames. The shoes are gorgeous and expensive. I don’t think any of them go beyond a size 7 or 8. I told her she was discriminating against all her friends with big feet. Of course, my shoe size is a perfectly reasonable excuse to not have to buy such expensive shoes in order to support my friend’s business.
Maybe with the extra packing, your boob will stop making so much fluid and the opening will heal more quickly. It might be worth the copay every so often to have the nurse helping you with that.
Here’s to nice looking shoes and the end of leaky boobs! LYTTMAB!