Another update - feeling better

So much can change in a day!

Since I posted yesterday, the weeping has been slowing down, and today there was barely any. Since the (hypo-allergenic...) tape has been irritating my skin, I decided to remove the gauze and let it dry out. It has "scabbed over" nicely, and there's no swelling or soreness under where it's been weeping, so I'm assuming it's finally stopped or at least slowed down enough for the body to reabsorb the fluid. I'm assuming there was the start of an infection, and the antibiotics helped it. The test the doctors did will eventually reveal all.

So, I thought I'd take a photo - exactly 4 weeks on!



You can see the darker spot near the top - that's the bit that's been weeping incessantly. The bit underneath it is also a bit darker. That had almost completely healed, but unfortunately all the fluid building under it caused the scar to press out a bit, and therefore get wider and more obvious which is a shame. Otherwise, everything is healing really well. Apparently it can take up to 12 months to fade as much as it ever will. You can also see to the left of the top of the scar a reddish semi-circle - that's from the stupid hypo-allergenic tape irritating my skin that's been holding on the gauze...

For comparison, this is a couple of days after surgery. You can probably see toward the top of the incision, in the spot where the weeping has been it's crooked and wider. Our theory is they had only opened to about an inch below that, then realised they had to go higher to use a better artery for the heart-lung machine (that part we know happened, the incision isn't normally so high otherwise), and by that stage I was all covered, so it was hard to keep it straight when the lengthened the incision. The scar itself has straightened out though which is good.