There’s a hole in my belly, dear Liza, dear Liza,
There’s a hole in my belly, dear Liza, a hole!
(Sang to the tune of the famous Childrens song)

Sorry, the song has been going through my head all afternoon! I have a hole in my belly. If you are interested in what it looks like, you can see in this photo (not for those who are squeamish about such things: http://dttocs.smugmug.com/photos/i-f7gnvM7/1/M/i-f7gnvM7-M.jpg). It is a bit interesting, as you can clearly see the layer of fat tissue that exists underneath the skin layer. The skin layer is actually pretty thick – such that the hole is almost 1cm deep.

Went to the plastic surgeon today and she confirmed that although I have a hole, it is “healthy” tissue – so no signs of infection (I’m doing something right). She also confirmed that the breast wound is actually healing (new skin is growing). For the belly wound, I’m being referred to the wound center for weekly (or twice weekly) care. She is also putting in an authorization to my insurance for a SNaP wound system (crossing my fingers that I don’t react to the adhesive!). This puts negative pressure on the wound which helps it heal. It can reduce healing time to half; however, it means I’ll be visiting the wound clinic twice a week until my next surgery (seeing my surgeon once a week at the wound clinic). That being said, it very well may not heal without surgery, so we have also kicked off the process for the revision surgery. I’m now waiting for various phone calls to find out when my next series of appointments will be.

I was really nervous taking a shower after today’s doctor visit. It is interesting, because I’ve been showering with the wound all along. The only difference today, is that the doctor cleaned it out a bit. You can clearly see the fat layer now, where before there was a layer of dead skin over top. Fortunately, it didn’t really make a difference. Showering felt the same as it did before.

I’m also surprised that I’m not so nervous about the next surgery. I’m actually eager to get it over with. I’d like to feel like I’m healing, and like this whole ordeal is behind me. The biggest obstacle to that ending is this revision surgery (which hopefully will be the final surgery). The surgery itself will take about three hours. It is long, but all the work being done is superficial. Mostly it will be scar clean-up, but there will also be some liposuction and moving around of some fat (to fill in gaps to make my breasts rounder). From my readings, it sounds like the lipo is actually more painful than the scar cleanup is. I’m a bit nervous because it is something new, but I’m hopeful that this time I’ll be going into a surgery with normal red blood cell and hematocrit levels. This should make a huge difference on recovery. I’ll also be stronger.