Mood: Good 😁
I had another follow-up appointment with my surgeon yesterday and I realized that it has already been a month since I had my surgery. It seems like time is flying by, but that is not a bad thing at all.
He took a look at my incisions, said that everything looks great and that I have healed well. I asked him if he could take out my sutures as one of them had been hurting me to the point of needing pain pills after the steri-strips came off over the weekend. So after taking another look he said that he could take them out. I am sore now that they are out and I will be for a few more days, but I am much more comfortable now.
We talked about the pain that has developed on the side of my left breast and he is not sure of the cause. This is an area that we have talked about before because I noticed it after my first surgery and it bothered me as the bulge in the area is noticeable, to me anyway, and it has never gone back to normal size. He actually pointed out the area to me when we were talking in pre-op before my last surgery, and he said that he couldn’t do anything about it that day, but we could look at it later on if it was still an issue. At that point it wasn’t causing me any discomfort or pain so we moved on to the details of the surgery on that day.
He took a look at the area and there isn’t anything out of the ordinary visibly or by touch, considering how many surgeries I have had, that would indicate my being in pain. He did directly touch the area that hurts while examining me and I let him know that it hurt. I asked him questions about the possibilities of what could be causing me pain but nothing made sense. I thought that it might have something to do with this last surgery but he doesn’t think that they are related, just a coincidence. He also doesn’t think that the pain has anything to do with the fact that I had so many lymph nodes removed during my first surgery. He asked me if I have any pain in my upper arm and I said that I don’t, that it is actually still numb from my first surgery.
He can remove the tissue in the area that is bothering me but he can’t guarantee that I will be out of pain once it is removed. He also said that he doesn’t like operating due to pain because he would be essentially doing the surgery blindly as he would be taking out the tissue in the area without actually seeing a problem internally. I have another follow-up appointment in a month so we will see how I am doing by then.
I have to say that I really appreciate the fact that my surgeon takes the time to answer my questions and discusses the details with me so I understand what my options are and what we are talking about. Having a surgeon that genuinely cares about my well-being makes all the difference in my attitude and healing.