At long last - my experience so far has been great

I’m writing this late, but these photos are from post-op day 10. I’m still quite swollen, and there’s so much bruising! I thought I might have been developing an infected seroma on the right side, but it turns out it’s a bit of a hematoma with no apparent infection. So now it’s just a matter of watching and waiting.

I travelled home on post-op days 7 and 8, which went fine, but then I had a huge increase in pain on post-op day 9. That has improved quite a bit over the last couple days, and I’ve been moving better. My drain output had significantly decreased by post-op day 7 and has only been draining about 25-30 mL per day. I expected that to increase during or after travel, but it hasn’t, so I get to take it out!

I keep thinking of taking photos when I’m in my compression garment, comfortable in my makeshift bed (semi-reclined-back armchair with pillows) - so it doesn’t happen. But I remembered today when the garment was off for my shower! My drain is still putting out a fair bit, but the total amount is decreasing each day and the colour is getting lighter as expected. The swelling and bruising are extreme, also as expected, so I’m very thankful for the drain (that I initially found annoying) preventing my body from having to process all that fluid. The pain is decreasing a bit each day, and there’s no sign of infection, so all is well!

PS - Don’t mind the lines up and down my abdomen. They’re just from the garment.