Complications.

WARNING- Major whine and rant ahead!!

Really!?!?!  I know that recovery is going to take longer than I think.  I know that it will be harder than I want.  I know that there will be set backs along the way.  Just because I can do X today, doesn't mean I can do it again tomorrow.  I have tried to hard to prepare myself mentally for whatever comes my way but I was NOT expecting this.

I am allergic to the tape used to bandage the incision.  I just can't wrap my brain around that one.  The tape?!?  Who is allergic to paper???  Me, apparently.  I am not taking this well.  I am angry and insulted.  Of all things that can happen  - a tape allergy happens to me.

Don't get me wrong I'm not hoping for worse.  It is just that I thought I had prepared myself for any eventuality.  I cleared my calendar as much as possible through the end of the year.  It never occurred to me that I might have been made worse by what was supposed to help.

65MD had been changing my bandage regularly since coming home from the hospital.  It drained, as was expected, and the hospital provided us with extra bandages and tape for that purpose.  Early on, I told 65MD that it hurt when he pulled off on of the tapes.  He was surprised and thought it was just because my leg was super sensitive and neither one of us thought much more about it.

Tuesday afternoon, he took the bandage off so that I could take a shower.  He pulled and I screamed.  He thought I was overreacting, but it really, really hurt!  Then we noticed a blister not quite as big as a dime at the top of the incision.  I wondered if I had been burned accidentally during the surgery.

I sent a picture of it to my sister who is a labor & delivery nurse.  She said she thought it was the tape.  So, as a precaution, we decided not to re-bandage the incision.  I showed it to my therapist yesterday and she confirmed that it was an allergic reaction.  She gave me another type of bandaging material if I needed it but advised to leave it off if I could.  She also suggested that I but a small band-aid type bandage over the blister in case it ruptured.

Then, last night, as I was getting ready for bed, I felt another blister.  I had 65MD look and I have blisters of varying sizes all down the back of my leg all along the side of the incision right where the tape had been.  Nothing to do for that.  I would have used a whole box of band-aids if I could have figured out how to put them on without getting on the staples.

We just put a towel in the bed to catch the goo as they ruptured, quite a few of them did.  Sigh.