Post-op tomorrow

My post-op appointment is tomorrow morning. Hopefully everything is healing well and my pin sites have survived the last twelve days without pin site care. I am actually a bit apprehensive about this. One of the pins has been leaking and leaking and leaking, draining for what feels like forever. The fluid coming from the pin site seeped through a swath of dressing around the pin, which in turn has stained the bandage around it an icky yellowy brown which had hardened. I know that I am a nursing student and will deal with stuff like this my entire career long, but the thought of those stained, damp, icky bandages on my skin for days on end makes me uneasy. It makes my stomach churns; there goes my gag reflex! I can only imagine how wet and mushy the skin underneath has become. But I was reassured multiple times (I kept asking, better safe than sorry) that it was safe to leave the dressing on until post-op and forgo pin site care. *sigh* Like always, I just have to have faith in my doctors. Not that that's done as easily as said.

On a much brighter note, my staples should be coming out! I asked my surgeon how many there were after surgery. He wasn't sure but he thought about fifteen. Even plus or minus a few, that's much better than the fifty-seven from the previous surgery! And this was surgery number six. I could probably remove them myself at this point. I could too! I have removed staples during clinical before... just not my own!