Saw the doctor again today. Unfortunately, I couldn't find childcare, and I had to take all the kids with me. All four of them. Knowing full well that I would be stuck waiting for a minimum of 45 minutes. Amazingly enough, they were incredibly well-behaved. I'll have to examine my tactics and apply them to future professional visits. I did let them bring toys, and they did some coloring and stuff. The doctor said it was nice to meet them and that they weren't really in the way, so that's a relief.

And the hole got bigger. He debrided it again today, this time taking out one of the big green sutures from the bottom of the original incision. So my hole now goes pretty much all the way down to the muscle layer, I guess you could say. I did a rough estimate of the measurements, and it appears to be approximately 1.5 inches long, 1 inch wide, and 1 inch deep. At least.

Here is a picture of the hole from this morning:



You can see that it was filling up a bit again with that yellowish stuff. I call it snot, because that's what it looks like. Unfortunately, I lost the picture from after the appointment, but it was definitely bigger and deeper. On the plus side, he did say that the tissue along the upper edge, which you can't really see in these pictures, looks nice and pink and healthy.

The overall story is this: He can't just close the hole up with sutures, because there is still stuff dying and sloughing off inside. If it were closed up, it could still become infected and turn into an abscess, which would have to be reopened and we're right back where we started. The area needs to stop sloughing off and turn into pink, healthy tissue on all sides. Then it will start the healing process properly.

He doesn't want to see me again for 3.5 weeks. He's actually going on vacation somewhere in there, too. He says that if everything is pink and healthy next time, and if it has not started to fill in and/or contract on its own, then he'll consider suturing it closed. So now it's just a waiting game.

Visited the mall again tonight, bought a black t-shirt with a purple fairy on it, and got a ring to put in my nose instead of the stud I've been wearing. No more soccer mom! I'm reclaiming my youth!