Staples Out!!! Stage 2 of Recovery. (Incision pictures included)

It's been 15 days since my second back surgery.  I am still feeling very confident about this one.  Of course I am still healing from the surgery and am quite sore in some areas, but the pain hasn't been horrible.  I haven't taken the "real" pain pills since last week as the pain has been tolerable with Tylenol or Motrin.  I do tend to have a pretty high pain tolerance, and the neurostim device definitely helped right after the surgery. 

A few days ago I photographed my incision again - y'all know how I have to keep notes on everything.  It has continued to heal well.  It's still puffy around it but so far doesn't seem to be retaining or collecting fluid as bad as last time.  That bruise you see on the right side... that area is definitely sore. 😬

I got curious about the incision was comparing to the last time so of course I had to do a comparison photo:

The photo on the left is from when I had the spinal fusion in January 2017.  The photo on the left is the most recent surgery.  This time the incision is a little longer.  I'm assuming this is because the doc explored the fusion and needed just a little more room.

Today I had my post-op appointment and thankfully got the staples out.  Wahoo!!!  Those things were driving me crazy.  Every move I made they were pulling on me.  Yikes!!  When the nurse was taking the staples out I asked about the top one - or should I say two since there were two in the same spot.  I laughed when I asked about it telling her I guess there was a misfire.  She snickered a little but said she was going to have to talk to the PA about that double whammy.  LOL

  
Because of where the incision is located I've had to keep it covered.  It's in a spot that is rubbed by my pants and I was terrified of pulling a staple out.  I had a lot of issues with tape irritation following the last surgery so we changed the type we were using.  As you can see my skin does not like it either.  OMG the itching!  Maybe now that the staples are out I can finally keep it uncovered.

Today I also got the hardware he took out of my back.  He couldn't give it to me the day of the surgery because it had to go through a sterilization process.  There is still an artificial disk cage and a screw that goes across diagonally through L4 and L5... those will remain in place indefinitely.  I took a photo of the hardware with my index finger next to it to give you an idea of the size of the screws that were in the vertebrae.  Wow.  

So... stage 2 of recovery begins now.  I return to the doctor in 4 weeks for another follow up.  I still have some restrictions with bending, lifting, and twisting as my back continues to heal.  And I'm hoping like crazy that the incision heals quicker than last time.  🤞🤞🤞🤞🤞🤞