Moving backwards, then kind of forward. I don't know. It's not really linear.

Things were going well, until they weren't. Last Tuesday (the 24th) I noticed that I had been having some majorly increased swelling in my stomach which I know is normal. I went back to work on Wednesday and that was the beginning of the end, work totally knocked me out but I went in again for about 7 hours on Thursday before going home and dying a slow death on the couch. Friday morning I almost passed out in the shower. Meanwhile, swelling had continued to get worse and it made it harder to eat and breathe normally. 

My doctor was out of the country last week so I tried to get in to see his partner last Friday but he was also not in that day, and I began feeling a little better. Saturday the swelling got worse and more painful and by Saturday night I noticed my stomach and upper pube area near the incision had turned dark red and Sunday morning I was peeing some blood so that's always fun. I texted the doctor who was still out of town but he called and looked at my pics and said it was a hematoma which is common and easily taken care of but would need to be drained.

So, this past Monday morning I went in to see him and he drained some of the blood/fluid right in the exam room using a needle in my stomach (which fortunately didn't hurt at all since my stomach is/was still numb from surgery) but said that because there was so much fluid he'd need to open me back up. So, that happened on Wednesday (with 2 really awful TMI days of non-painful but disgustingness in between) and he stitched me back up and now I'm feeling much better. Or more like, back to how I was feeling around day 12. Which is frustrating when you want to be feeling day 23 good. And I've got a drain back in, but honestly after the past week I'll gladly take that beast again.

Anyway, so that's been a bitch and I've had to use way more work days off than planned. On the other hand, my arms look and feel fantastic and the doctor said they've been healing really really well so I'm very psyched about that.  Here are some arm pics (right/top is from day 17, left/bottom is from today so swelling fluctuates some) and will update again soonish.