It’s been two weeks now since surgery and everything seems to be healing up well. The mastectomy itself has been no issues at all. The lymph node removal has been that painful bit. Under my armpit and round my back is still swollen and very tender. I’m not on any pain killers and its not agony but uncomfortable still to move about. My left arm and hand keep getting a weird numb feeling and the skin still feels on edge sometimes as my nerves are sorting themselves out.
I’m plodding through my next set of exercises too to get my range of motion back. I feel like every time I do them, I’m starting from scratch. My skin and muscles seem to get just as tight from morning to midday but I’m cracking on with them anyway. They may look simple but it they are not simple to do after surgery. I’m still wearing anything that fastens at the front with zips or buttons. The physio keeps me going to be able to wear something that isn’t a man’s shirt.
I got my friend who is a midwife over on Friday to take off my dressing. I thought it was best having someone who knew what they were doing rather than me ripping it off. The dressing came off no bother and she checked over my stitches. The scar is still covered with steri-strips and she said this would fall off with the scabs once my skin healed. No picking! The scar is a long one mind. Right from the centre of my chest passed my armpit and round to my back. I was expecting a 4 inch scar max over where my boob used to be. I wasn’t prepared for that. It doesn’t feel weird nothing my left boob though. To be honest even in a vest top it doesn’t look or feel odd to me. By the time I get my other boob off I’m going to have some good scars across my body. War wounds to show off I suppose. Better to have the scars than the cancer any day.
