It was good to get out of the house
Apr. 6th, 2006 12:07 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
bunrabI went to rehearsal this evening, and managed to play pretty much the whole rehearsal, though a bit soft at times. Luckily, almost all the weight of a large saxophone rests on the neck strap and on the right hand; none of it touches the left half of the thorax at all. I'm exhausted, though. I don't think I'll spend tomorrow rearranging the furniture.
One of the things about finally being free of the PICC line, and of being able to wash up, is that I can see spots on my body that I couldn't before. And I have leftover adhesive marks from various electrodes and bandages ALL over. I got a bunch of them scrubbed off this morning, but there are still several to go. Over the course of the hospitalization, the emergency room, the surgery itself, and then a quick EKG every day while I was in the hospital, I had many, many electrodes places all over my thorax and abdomen, and a few on my arms and legs. And then there were adhesive bandages holding all the original IV lines in place, as well as the big adhesive patch holding most of the PICC line in my arm - that one is going to take several tries to erode away the goo entirely. Soap does absolutely nothing toward getting rid of that goo; eroding it with a rough washcloth seems to be the only way to tackle it.
The links below are to pictures of my "wound site" - the opening where the pacemaker was taken out. This is the area where each day, Spouse pulls the old gauze out, rinses off the wound, soaks new gauze in hydrogel, and then pokes it in there, then we cover it up with a nice gauze pad and some surgical tape. Seeing the pictures, perhaps shows you why the pulling out and poking in go much better if I take a painkiller such as the hydromorphone. Anyhoo, do NOT click on these links if you are at all squeamish.
the wound with gauze in it
the wound without the gauze in it
One of the things about finally being free of the PICC line, and of being able to wash up, is that I can see spots on my body that I couldn't before. And I have leftover adhesive marks from various electrodes and bandages ALL over. I got a bunch of them scrubbed off this morning, but there are still several to go. Over the course of the hospitalization, the emergency room, the surgery itself, and then a quick EKG every day while I was in the hospital, I had many, many electrodes places all over my thorax and abdomen, and a few on my arms and legs. And then there were adhesive bandages holding all the original IV lines in place, as well as the big adhesive patch holding most of the PICC line in my arm - that one is going to take several tries to erode away the goo entirely. Soap does absolutely nothing toward getting rid of that goo; eroding it with a rough washcloth seems to be the only way to tackle it.
The links below are to pictures of my "wound site" - the opening where the pacemaker was taken out. This is the area where each day, Spouse pulls the old gauze out, rinses off the wound, soaks new gauze in hydrogel, and then pokes it in there, then we cover it up with a nice gauze pad and some surgical tape. Seeing the pictures, perhaps shows you why the pulling out and poking in go much better if I take a painkiller such as the hydromorphone. Anyhoo, do NOT click on these links if you are at all squeamish.
the wound with gauze in it
the wound without the gauze in it
