My name is Vicky. I live in Colorado. I'm 43 and a divorced mother of two. I'm a medical transcriptionist, and a writer. Less than two weeks ago I was diagnosed with colon cancer. I don't smoke, drink, or do drugs, and I don't have a family history of colon cancer. Writing is my way of dealing with and processing what I'm going through. This blog is a way for me to do that for myself, my family, and anyone else who might benefit from it.

Saturday, February 4, 2017

ILEOSTOMY WOUND NOT HEALING

October 2015 to December 2015 —To make a long story much shorter, in my followup visits with Dr. Strobos he said my incision wasn't healing completely.  The incision area sank inward causing the wound not to heal.  It was so concave it literally looked like a belly button.  (I teased him that the right side of my abdomen looked great, except for the extra belly button, because it looked like he gave me a tummy tuck,  I told him it would have been nice if he'd evened me up and done the same to the other side!)  There are a lot of people who've gone through this same surgery and post photos of their belly on line.  I'm not one of them ;)  But a lot of us have the same-looking belly.  So picture me that way, but with a second belly button.  If you think your complete-lack-of-muscle-tone-lopsided-butt-looking belly can't get any more displeasing-looking, try adding a second belly button.  

Before attempting to fix it, which would require slicing the wound back up, he sent me for an ultrasound to make sure I didn't have a hernia because of how much pain I had,  He didn't want to risk opening me up if I did.  No hernia, thank goodness.  So in his office he did the procedure, and I'm glad he had something to numb the area first!  He cleaned it out and re-stitched it and it looked great. But a few weeks later it just sank again.  He tried again and it seemed to work.  The final attempt was the end of November.  He said if that didn't work I'd have to see a plastic surgeon!

The only way to make it stay was to pull really hard from as deep as he could to bulk up enough support to hold the incision up.  Even with the numbing meds that really hurt.  He said he was really amazed I was able to tolerate that, and he didn't think many people could.  Yay me.  But I wasn't trying to be brave, I just wanted it over with and didn't want the big to-do of going into the hospital.  (I wouldn't recommend it.  It was very painful, and not to mention gross.  I tried not to watch but I just couldn't help it).  It took and it has stayed!

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