my last drain was pulled friday. by some random doc, not my normal one. i wasn't happy. she told me it might be a little soon to pull it, and that if the area started swelling afterwards, i might have to come back to have it 'drained' again. and sure enough, i now have swelling, in new areas. and a constant yellow/orange stream of fluid running down my leg. when we go somewhere, i cover it with gauze and tape, but 2 hours (or less) later, it starts leaking onto my clothes. so, as a nurse, i started thinking that maybe some manual expression from the area would help expedite the process. but now my entire thigh is sore from that.
i was able to swim sunday. i slapped on a huge tegaderm (one of those clear filmy things they put over IV sites) over my leg wounds and prayed it would stay sealed through the swim. we intended to do 1/2 mile. but soon we found ourselves going out with the mile group, for one reason or another. i was only able to do the freestyle stroke; i was afraid to do the breaststroke because it involves frog kicks, and i didn't want to be shaking my dressing against my wetsuit. unfortunately breaststroke is my go-to stroke when my arms tire from the free. dave stayed with me, and at about the 1/2 mile mark, after repeated 'rest stops' on my part, dave called it quits for us. a wise choice, but a bummer. i could've made it, but my arms were tired, and the last thing i needed was going around the pier even remotely tired. so we walked the rest of the mile back. and then we played in the surf. the tegaderm was adequate; about an hour after the swim my leg had leaked so much fluid the entire folded 4x4 was soaked through, and the dressing seemed to be losing some elasticity.
i've gained a nice amount of weight through all this. so much so that my wetsuit has numerous cracks in it now. that, in and of itself has me going nuts. which doesn't help anything. i can't walk very quickly because there's still a lot of extra fluid in my leg, and walking fast jostles that fluid around, which is painful. i find myself stepping in-organically (sure, that's a word) so as to minimize the jostle, which can't be good for form, or any of my other joints for that matter. i can't ride because i don't have a bike. and i can't seem to bring myself to a pool. i think it's because pools are much more of an intimate setting, and i'm embarrassed about my leg. it looks awful, and i've very self conscious. not to mention the added weight all around.
dave has been offered and has accepted a new position, which we are absolutely thrilled about. the only temporary downside - we have to move. it's a 100+ mile trip, one way right now. so, we're looking for a new place to live. i'm completely excited about that. i feel living out here in the valley has put us out of the tri loop, in a way. granted, we'll still be 20 miles from the coast, but i'm hoping for the best. there's some argument over renting a house versus apartment between the 2 of us, so we're trying to get that figured out. originally we wanted to be moved by the time he went to work, but seeing as how his start date is now a week away, that goal is slipping away quickly. real estate agents aren't the best at getting back to you, we're finding.
as for my job situation, i should be released from my latest doc within 2 weeks or so. of course, in the nicu travel world, that doesn't exactly mean that i'll go right back to work. i'll have to find a job, which my recruiter is looking for. not knowing where we will be living isn't really helping that issue though.
so, as you can see, i'm a barrel of fun lately. i'm thinking about taking up drinking...
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