Dressed at last

I tackled the surgery again on Monday & duly got an appointment at 9am yesterday, Tuesday, with a practice nurse. I was surprised to have my chest photographed. It’s for their records so they have a record of how it was when their treatment began.

 

She then got on to tackling my leaks. A small dressing was put on the tumours between my breasts. Another small one was placed on the tumours near my armhole. Then came the problem of Lump.

 

She didn’t want to put anything actually sticky on the actual tumour as when it was removed the skin underneath would be liable to come off too. In the end she put on the biggest dressing she could find, 20cm x 10cm. She attached some adhesive strips across each end & put some across the bottom. She’s prescribed all these dressings so each time I go to see a nurse I have to take the dressings with me. She also gave me further appointments as I will probably need the dressings changed twice a week.

 

By the afternoon the tape down one side had come loose. We did our best to re-attach it & add some extra tape. By bedtime it was loose again, so we not only added extra tape but tried some across the top. The problem is as I get tired, or watch the TV, my head tends to nod down onto Lump. (For comfort I usually put a small cushion/pad in between.) The weight of my head pushes down the dressing.

 

This morning I woke up to having my hand covered in tape & a flapping dressing. Before I started getting dressed, I re-taped everything up. I’m hoping by wearing a round-necked jumper it may give a bit of extra protection. Yesterday I was wearing a V-necked jumper, across the V of which stretched the dressing. One thing, though, the skin side of the dressing is a beautiful yellow brown. Clearly there has been a lot of leakage, more than enough to justify a dressing. Ideally an even bigger dressing is needed to cover over Lump. It is just so big now.

 

I’m now trying to work out how I should have a shower as the big dressing is not waterproof. For that matter how are Radiotherapy & Oncology going to get to see the tumours through the dressings.

 

The other thing that struck me as ironic is that if these wounds don’t heal up within 6 weeks then I will be passed onto the districts nurses, the very ones I tried to get in the first place!