Tuesday, August 19, 2008

Alas, no more Bat Cave!

Yesterday, during my dressing change, my nurse told me that she is no longer able to get a thin Q-tip into what used to be a cavity last week. It was probably a combination of both a bit of roof collapse of the Bat Cave as well as some growth of the tissue underneath. Good news!

I asked her if this was unusual or expected and she said that she wasn't surprised that the cavity had closed up that quickly. But I still have a hole in my chest that's about an inch (2.5 to 3mm) all the way around and about 5mm deep. The "tissue" is NOT granulated (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Granulation_tissue), which is not a good thing but also not expected since that tissue has been hit with radiation twice. My tissue has some pinkish tint to it, but it's this more amorphous white/yellowish tissue. So, this time, she did not pack the wound with the white foam (which stays moist and is antimicrobial), but with the granulated gray foam that will encourage the creation of granulated tissue. So, it will still be awhile for this hole to heal.

But, it is healing and that's a good thing!

No other remarkable news, other than I don't have a fever, I slept about 7 1/2 to 8 hours last night, and I don't really have much of a cough anymore. It's all upward from here!

I even got about half a review of an article written today. It feels good to feel somewhat productive!

2 comments:

Carver said...

Good to hear that it's healing Dee and that you were able to get some work done. I'm sure it helps mentally to be able to do something productive like work on the article review. Of course healing is also productive.

Dee said...

Hi Carver,
You're right - healing is productive, too, and I need to remember to give my body the rest it needs so that it can do its job better. But resting makes me feel like I'm being lazy and unproductive . . . something I need to get over, I suppose. I hope you're doing well!