(None of my markdown is working. Hmm.)
#The Surgery
Back on April 12th, I had something of a hybrid top surgery. Unlike most top surgeries, I didn't have what is essentially a full mastectomy, I had something more like a breast reduction. I'm an androgyne, and while I would have done the normal top surgery if my insurance required it, my surgeon managed to get my insurance to go with the idea of letting me get just the majority of breast tissue removed.
##The First Issues
The first resulting issues were mainly pain, and having problems with wearing the surgical bra. While it was much like binding, it was a bit different when the tissue is essentially wounded. Unfortunately, I have a high tolerance to pain medication, so the percocets that I was prescribed didn't really do much for me, but I didn't particularly want to deal with anything else either - fibromyalgia doesn't do well with any sort of opioids in general, the receptors don't respond well, so I just sort of dealt with it.
##The New Issue
So around the 11th/12th of May, I started noticing a slight rash over the torso area, but the second follow up appointment for my surgery was up, so I went in for that. They were concerned that it was potentially a bacterial infection from having worn the surgical vest for a month, and the spring shifting into summer; which was I guess fair because we didn't get our ACs running up immediately. They gave me an antibiotic pill and I already had an antibiotic cream, however it didn't go well from there.
The next day, the thin line of rash had spread over most of my torso, including all of the surgical site (which was thankfully all just lines of scars), to my arms as well. It managed to get even worse by Sunday, so I ended up at the walk in clinic. I wanted to go to the ED, but my now-ex had talked my mum out of that idea. They were concerned there that the antibiotic cream wasn't strong enough, and gave me a stronger one, and that the rash on the arms was just a different, allergy related rash and gave me a steroid cream for that.
Neither worked at all. By Wednesday, I was cancelling my D&D game, contacting the surgeon who was trying to get me into dermatology, and finding there was a wait till June 28th for dermatology. I elected to message a dermatologist who had worked with me on an allergy issue in 2014 when we discovered I was allergic to benzodiazpines, and he started trying to have me send in images, though there was an issue with the system uploading anything - it kept sending the same image even though the preview acted like it was selecting different images off my phone and PC. At least the dermatologist was able to move the appointment up to this coming Wednesday.
##Breaking Point
Unfortunately, even after having one of my D&D players suggest trying caladryl, I wasn't able to get any sleep, so this past Thursday night/Friday morning I ended up forcing my ex (who still lives here) to take me to the ED. They were pretty glad I did that, because there was concern that any more delay could have resulted in cellulitis, with how built up the one area of the rash was.
The doctor there decided that it wasn't allergic, or bacterial. They ended up giving me a steroid burst course, and that has actually made it so that the rash is going down, though it's taking a bit. Most of it has stopped itching for the more part, but it's not entirely faded away. It's really kept me from doing anything till today, after having spent most of a month from doing much as it was.
I burned through most of the steroid cream as well, as I started using that over the whole thing, in an attempt to try and get more of the damn thing to go away. I still have the appointment Wednesday, but would have never made it without going to the ED.
##Sick of Arguments
During the downtime for the surgery, my boyfriend and I ended up breaking up, and part of it had to do with how he can't just really deal with the medical stuff. Literally every time I've felt like I should go to the ED, he's argued against it, and several times, it's been detrimental to the situation - just like this time. If I had gone there Sunday, this would have been resolved a lot earlier, and I wouldn't have lost most of this week to not being capable of existing.
Granted, there was a lot more to it than that (he's actually quite mentally/emotionally abusive, besides - as in I'm working with the hospital system over it), but this sort of just highlighted one of the major detrimental issues that has come up over the past few years with him. Since I don't have a vehicle, and it's always dicey to take an ambulance (thank you American health system), I have to rely on either mum or the ex to get to the hospital...and there's always been a fight over it.
And most of the time, it's really been to the detriment of my health. =/
