On September 16 I had a second surgery. The surgery itself went really well.

Within a couple of weeks, the new wound was not healing. In fact it was splitting and getting worse.

My current surgeon, had us start packing it again and told us to go back to old routines. After three weeks we got a second opinion.

The new surgeon, my mother calls him the cute surgeon, didn’t really say that what went wrong was the previous surgeon’s fault. He did say that he wouldn’t have done either surgery the way the old surgeon had.

Up to this point we were packing my wound with what I called string gauze. It was about a 1/4″ wide and was packed into the tunneling that my wound was creating. My new surgeon packed my wound with 4″ rolled gauze. It was a huge size difference and a huge pain difference. We were supposed to pack the wound the same way every night. Husband couldn’t. I think he was worried about causing me pain and shoving so much gauze into the wound. It was just too complicated. The next day I started going to the hospital for daily dressing changes.

The good news is that the packing was just a temporary stop-gap until we could get a Wound V.A.C. I could tell you what V.A.C stood for but  I’m too lazy to go read the box. Basically it is a machine that continually vacuums the wound. It removes all the gunk that could prevent healing and pulls the skin together.

Since I have the box, many of you have figured out that I now have said V.A.C. I’m officially a cyborg. Part human, part machine.

I’m continually attached to a machine about the size of an old answering machine. There is a yard or more of tubing and I have to carry both V.A.C and tubing around with me at all times. There is a fancy little pouch for it which I can carry on one shoulder or cross-body for ease of use. It’s got a fancy touch screen and I can check the amount of suction and charge at any time. Luckily, it is a rechargeable battery so there are only a few hours at night that I have to remain plugged in.

This is a mobile V.A.C. I could go places with this machine but I probably won’t. No one besides myself and family really needs to see goop running through this tubing. And while I could come up with a lot of ways to camouflage the tubes and machine, there would always be a chance that someone could see something they didn’t want to and I just can’t do that to other people.

I can also shower with this machine. You clamp some tubes, turn it off and disconnect from the machine. However, I have to be super careful not to get water into the drape (sticky stuff that keeps everything in place) and especially not the foam which is the integral part of how the machine works. If I do, I could create a worse infection than I’ve already had. Those were miserable and painful, I want to avoid another infection at all costs. I will most likely end up washing my hair in the sink and resorting to sponge baths.

I will likely have this machine attached to my tushy for another 4-6 weeks. And this is the fastest healing option available to me.

Every other day (except weekends) a nurse will come to my house and replace the tubes, foam & drape.

For now, I can sit on my tush. This is a new development. I’ve become really good at just sitting on one cheek or thigh. I’ve been leaning sideways on the couch to work for the past two weeks. I’m hoping tomorrow I can work in the office and sit in my office chair.

The sitting upright might only last until they do a new change and add an additional kind of foam with enters the wound deeper. It’s been my experience that the more inside packing there is, the more pain I’ll be in and the less likely I’ll be able to sit normally.

I look at this machine with dread and optimism. One the one side, I’m basically a home bound stinky person for at least the next month. (I exaggerate a bit.) On the other side, I’m healed in half the time and this whole ordeal is over.

I have moments where I cry and moments where I laugh.

I keep moving forward.