To the Bat Cave!

Sooo, is this a reference to the Dark Knight? Well, yes, sort of.

I woke up thinking of that phrase, "To the Bat Cave!" and it's because as I tried to explain what it is we're trying to heal to Scott, I said that I have this little cave under my right chest, where the tissue expander used to be.

I now have an open hole, about an inch in diameter, where the tissue expander poked through. This is the hole the plastic surgeon yanked the expander out of and is the "entrance" to the cave. Once you go through the hole, this cave is about 8mm high, about 6.5 cm long, and 3.5 cm wide, with this 2.5-3cm white entrance on the right end (which is my right). At the edges of the entrance hole, the tissue is about 1cm on the "top" side and about 2cm laterally.

Lovely.

As I understand it, what we want to encourage is that my body grow tissue from the rib-side of the hole up to the top of this cave. So, I have to grow tissue that's 8mm tall, 6.5cm long, and 3.5cm wide. It will probably take 2-3 months and I may have to wear the "Vac" - the vacuum wound pump for as long as 2 months, depending on how well I tolerate it. I will wear this pump as a fanny pack. It makes a small amount of noise. But, as I understand it, the pump whisks away any moisture, which might harbor microbes, and it will also encourage red blood cells and blood vessels to the area for healing and for building new tissue.

I need to try to eat more protein. I've been trying, but I guess I could try to eat like Michael Phelps, who reported a daily diet of 8-10,000 calories; the breakfast he eats is enough to feed my whole family!! Protein will help my anemia as well as help build new tissue.

I was feeling discouraged last night, both because of the news of the wound pump and the fact that I still had a temperature; when the Tylenol started wearing off, it was 100. Sigh.

Although I didn't get to sleep until 12:30am (watching the women's gymnastics event), I slept fairly well and I had a lot less discomfort than the night before. The wound care nurse didn't pack the cavity with as much gauze (she thought the plastic surgeon put a whole roll of gauze in there!), so I think that that decreased some of the pressure. I was even able to sleep on my right side, which I hadn't really been able to do for several days.

So, last night, I started some visualization about this wound. Sometime, I will post about this visitor I had post-surgery in November. Since June, I've thought of him as a spirit helper of sorts. Sometimes, when I do the stray cat strut visualization, he's helping me kick out the cancer cells. Last night, I visualized him and me looking around the Bat Cave, taking a tour of sorts. Then, I started to visualize the tissue on the bottom (i.e., nearest the ribs) healing, by imagining a small group of elves building new tissue using cells as building blocks. So, when you think of me, help imagine these little elves rebuilding the tissue underneath. I would appreciate it!

I woke up in a good mood, though! Something changed during the night. Not sure what yet, but I think I won't have the fever any longer. Time will tell! Have a good day everyone!