Starting again on Day 28

Having already started this blog, I was no longer shy about taking photos of myself, so these were taken in hospital the day after BB's haematoma was drained.
The surgeon removed 600mls of old blood from that breast, which is a greater volume than the tissue he removed at the original operation! No wonder it had been so tense and swollen, and no wonder I had been feeling so tired and miserable during the last couple of weeks. That's a lot of blood to "lose" from the circulation, and then to then have to carry around in one poor breast.
So it was definitely worth doing, and you can see how dramatically the swelling has been reduced in comparison to the previous photos.

Of course there is always the risk that the same thing will happen again, so during the operation two drains were inserted, to try to prevent a similar build-up. This photo shows the drains doing their job.

 

Unfortunately they stopped draining during the first day after surgery, and although the surgeon seemed pleased with this, I became very worried that the haematoma would re-develop in the space left behind by the removal.

Adding to my worries, the surgeon explained that when he removed the haematoma he found a couple of areas of fat necrosis, which is yet another uncommon complication of breast reduction.

It seems rather unfair that I should experience not just one but two complications, and I can only hope that the rest of my recovery is uneventful.