Unstitched!

This morning I was quite excited about getting the stitches out. We hurried through school, so were finished by about 11.40. I heeded Nick’s advice and went to town first, for a DVD for tonight and a few grocery items. He said I probably wouldn’t feel like going to town after the stitches were done. I was at the hospital at 12, then had a bit of a runaround trying to find someone to get the stitches out. I asked for Hazel, who was the attending nurse last week, and was sent over to the outpatients clinic, where they couldn’t find her at all. I headed back to the hospital, thinking that I could just find anyone capable of doing this, but then luckily found Dr Kruger AND Hazel, in the same place, and immediately available. The Dr attended to the removals, which I was happy about, as she could examine the wounds and declare them to be fine. However, the one on the neck is still stitched up with just two stitches, as it hasn’t closed up as much as it should have. I said yesterday that I would be taking painkillers in anticipation, but decided against it in the end – which was a bad idea. It was really sore, and I sweated a puddle onto the operating bed! I now have a steri-strip across the neck wound where the stitches have been taken out, just to keep it together (although I don’t think those things do anything), and a piece of gauze in my armpit to keep those ones dry. Unfortunately my skin seems to have reacted to the plasters, so is quite red, and the doctor couldn’t apply any more plasters to keep the gauze in place, so instead she wrapped a bandage around my arm and over the shoulder, sticking that in place instead! I now look officially wounded. I had thought to go to the dentist while I was up at the hospital, as my filling came out again this morning, but I was in too much pain and went straight home instead, changing gears with my right hand.