I feel like I have a high pain threshold; however, after the tissue expander surgery I did experience a huge amount of pain. The tissue expander was placed across the back of my head along with the port hole to inject the fluid through. Due to the location of the expander I have struggled to sleep - this has had a toll not only on my body but mentally.
Due to the pain I have been sleeping upright in a recliner chair to try to ease the pressure and tension of the back of my head, getting about 3-5 hours of sleep a night. I am not a fan of using pain killers but for the first week or so I had to have them every day. I have since been alternating between Panadol and Neurofen to help with the pain and keeping pain killers spare if I need them at night.
Each day since the surgery I have been cleaning the wounds with saline and gauze and then putting the betadine ointment the doctor asked me to apply daily. 1 week post op I had an appointment for the plastic surgeon to inspect the wounds and the tissue expander. Both the nurse and doctor said that my wounds are healing really well, which was a relief. The nurse washed the wounds up again and then scheduled for my sutures to come out the following week. I had my sutures removed at the 2 week appointment. It was an incredible feeling washing my hair for the first time again, feel like a new person!! No signs of infection so far - keeping my fingers and toes crossed, it is really reassuring seeing the specialist weekly so we can act quickly should anything change.
Since having the infection last year I have started to develop seborrheic dermatitis on my scalp (like cradle cap for babies). Given that I hadn't washed my hair in 14 days my hair was extremely oily so the dermatitis has returned. I have included head and shoulders and an oil treatment in my hair washing routine now to help reduce the dermatitis.
I will continue to see my specialist weekly, with the first expanding session starting next Monday, 28 March 2022. I am a little bit nervous but completely trust my specialist. I will continue to share pictures along the way of how the tissue expander process is going and how big they stretch my scalp skin!
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