Day 6

Can't quite believe it's Day 6...I expected to be at least walking properly by today. The sick note (for work) given to me by the hospital says '5 days'. I'm unable to walk far enough to use public transport, stand up for more than an hour or concentrate on anything for less than that. Work isn't really an option!

I'm sleeping fine, but still on my back. I can rest for short periods on my side, with 1 or 2 pillows wedged between my knees to keep my legs apart. The edges of the wound hurt more than ever. I'm desperate to clean it more thoroughly in the bath, but it hurts too much touch even gently, and I'm worried about not rinsing soap out properly and causing irritation. After the bath I tried to use a baby wipe to clean the inner labia, but it stung!

I'm getting increasingly lonely and depressed, but most of all frustrated about not being able to DO anything productive. I want to get on with my life!

Now time for a(very appealing) visual update; I'm sure you can't wait. Ok, without a mirror I can see the clitoral hood still has a weird bruise down the middle/on one side, it's more red/purple than blue/black now and perhaps a little less swollen. As for the stitches (yes, I braved the mirror again) they're still intact. I'm worried they'll start dissolving soon...I have no idea if this will happen all over or if they will break in some places. I can't even imagine, I've never HAD stitches before. Anyway the skin appears to be healing more than last time I looked (3 days ago?) when the wounds were still bloody at the edges so I could see red zig zags between the stitches. What I have now looks very odd, the only was I can think of to describe it is imagine your back teeth (molars?) were flesh coloured. Along the visible edges of my labia I have what look like bumpy pink teeth. I hope this bumpy edge will turn smooth when the stitches disappear! I'm sure it will.

My main concern is that in maybe 4 places up and down the stitches there are black patches which look sore in comparison to the rest which is nice new pink skin. I'm hoping these are the last bits of crusty blood, the spots that are last to heal. But I'm more worried these bits are infected. I think in the bath tomorrow I'll hold a mirror and dab these bits with a clean damp flannel to make sure they're really clean.  I'm wincing already. So scared of infection! Thanks to a helpful contributor, I know infection is common (but can be treated by antibiotics). The same lady also seems to have noticed a similar LL, though I don't know the details of hers. Mine is still present, and basically looks the same as it did on day 1, because the skin in healthy/normal! I'm just going to ignore it for now. I don't know if it's worth noting that 2 of the sore looking black patches are directly below the clitoris, right where the stitches start.

In other news, the bleeding seems to have stopped almost completely. Now that I'm on normal off-the-shelf Paracetemol (with Ibuprofen), the constipation no longer seems to be a problem. I need to eat more fruit though, I'm worried all the junk food I'm eating is restricting my recovery.