HEALED!

Okay, Okay.  I know it's been over a month since I've posted.  Every week I figured, let's heal a little more and then post pictures.  But then the healing moved slowly.  So I decided today would be the perfect day for an update -- today I am 100% HEALED!

It's been 6 weeks and 3 days since my surgery.  Overall, the recovery started out rocky, but once we got the wound dressings under control, everything was good.  While it was a slow process, the multi-day dressings and creams became routine and weren't a big deal.  As of now, I need no more dressings and no more ACE wrap... until the next time.

So what took so long?  Well that "hole" I showed you in the last post got worse before it got better.  And actually, even a THIRD area began to open up before the healing really started.  Take a look...

March 13
The vertical stitches above the larger open area
have popped open here and the skin is
starting to separate upward now.

A week after that happened, I went in to have my stitches out.  Because of how difficult this task was last time, my parents and Dr. Price decided that it would be better to try to remove them under sedation, so we they actually did it in the O.R.  And it went MUCH better than last time!  Dr. Price put some "duoderm" (or as we like to call it, magic tape) over these open wounds, and presto, the tissue filled right in.  Although, it was a little over-zealous...

March 24
The bubbled tissue is granulation tissue
that grew a bit too exuberantly.

Well once this happened, Dr. Bauer gave us a new dressing routine, and we just had to wait it out.  All of the granulation tissue eventually calmed down, and scar tissue formed over it.  No need to worry, the scar tissue will be removed in a future surgery.

When mom unwrapped me today, the last of my scar tissue had formed.  I was finally done!  And thank God, because it's getting hot here in the Phoenix area and I can't take being wrapped in that ACE bandage anymore!  So here is the final result after Surgery #6...

I still have a bit of a road ahead of me, but am so very thankful for tremendous progress that we've made over the last 15 1/2 months.  And while we don't know when I will be done, we do know that my next round of expansion is scheduled to run from July 12 to October 4, 2012.  Please keep those prayers going.  We are really hoping this is my last set of expanders. 

And now it's time for a break.  A real break.  We are taking our very first family vacation next week.  Oh yeah, we've done plenty of traveling since I came along, but pretty much every trip has involved me being poked and prodded in some way.  This time, no doctors.  No hospitals.  No bandages.  Just family and fun.  And Mickey Mouse.