Post-EUA (Exploration Under Anaesthetic) things have been generally good. Initially there was a lot of leakage (both blood and exudate) from the newly opened wound so much so that I had to invest in some sexy incontinence pants. Thankfully that seemed to reduce quite quickly thus reducing the need for the pants.
I had seen a Surgery Care Practitioner at the beginning of the week who examined the wound and dressed it and after 6 months of applying an adhesive dressing to it opted for dry dressings fixed with tape. I had occasionally had this form of dressing in the past and it was fine providing there wasn’t much leakage and as the amount of exudate and blood had reduced by the Monday I continued with them. Compared to the adhesive dressings it probably allowed the air to get at the wound which hopefully did it good.
I have continued these dressings throughout the week but based on the one wound reopening I’m back to a 7-day-a-week dressing change which is hardly convenient. This is likely to continue for the near future but if things go well I can switch back to a 5-day-a-week dressing change.
MRI
The aim of the recent EUA was to determine what’s going on and whether the two wounds are connected. Only an MRI would be able to determine that and the earliest I could get an appointment was September 1st. There could be a couple of outcomes from the MRI and if connected I’d most likely require surgery to open up the area and to switch to a VAC to help heal the area and if it’s not connected it could go either way.
Should I Run?
Based on how things have gone so far, the question remains, should I start running again? Due to the location of the wound, movement can potentially interfere with it, but it also may not. In the past I’ve started running again without issue but I don’t know if I have contributed to the problems I’ve experienced. My guess is that the infections I’ve encountered are nothing to do with running but I need to check if running would hinder the recovery process.
My surgeon is a runner (he wears a Garmin on his rounds!) and he knows I’m a runner and this has never come up before so I’m unsure whether it’s an issue or not but it’s worth asking the question. It’s how to strike that balance between ensuring the wound is healing whilst still keeping fit. You could say that it would be best to not exercise until fully healed but I’ve read of these things taking 2 years or more to fully heal. I don’t think I need to stay away from exercising, it’s just when to start again. I feel like I could start running again, it’s just whether I should or not.
