Memory: Incision Healing

July 4, 2023

On this date last year, the eight-inch-long, vertical incision in my chest continued to heal quite well. I continued my road to recovery by engaging in more physical therapy and more occupational therapy at my new temporary "home": a physical rehabilitation facility.

(Of course, my scar looks much better now, but it is wider than I expected. My chest is still sore and numb.)

I entered the facility on June 3, 2022, and I did not return home until July 21, 2022, a day before my wife's birthday. Prior to that, I was admitted to the hospital on May 13, 2022, where I would have two chest surgeries (May 19 & 25, 2022) due to complications from my quadruple coronary artery bypass surgery on March 9, 2022.

During my open-heart surgery in March, my surgeon had to break my sternum (breastbone) in half so that he could access my heart. Last year at this time, my sternum was still healing. You know, I think it still is. During my first chest surgery in May, my surgeon removed the sternal plates holding the two pieces of my breastbone together due to loose screws and also to tend to a staph infection within my chest. My chest remained open for about week with a wound vacuum attached. During my second chest surgery, my surgeon closed my chest by clipping off the tips of my ribs and reattaching my chest muscle flaps to my body.

I stayed in the hospital until I was transferred to the facility, so I wasn't home for a total of seventy (70) straight days.

(There is more information in the original post below.)

If Facebook blurred the composite photo that I created (below), click/tap on "learn more," and then click/tap on "see photo."