{NOTE: This was originally published on Vanessa’s CarePage. We are copying all those posts here to have her story in one place that all can access. We are back-dating the posts to match when she originally published the post there, and are marking the blog post here with Vanessa as the author, as these words that follow are her own.}

Posted Feb 25, 2008 10:12pm

hey guys! so i had a follow-up visit today with dr. sillins and she was able to take off most of my bandages, and i got 3 of my 5 drains taken out! needless to say, i am more comfortable now. we also measured my belly incision and it is 19 inches long!! and that’s not even counting the four other incisions on my chest! i’m just an ugly mess of stitches and super glue right now, so i’m looking forward to the days when i’m all healed up. it’s hard to have your belly stretched so much that that you can’t lay flat, and have to walk hunched over, but i’m getting straighter every day, so that’s good. :)