45. Jammy Dodger

I go back to work the next day feeling fine - the paracetamol are more than sufficient to counter-effect any soreness, which is minimal – I guess mostly due to the existing lack of sensation in my breast. But the following day I make the mistake of going for a run –the wound area is sore and starts bleeding. Back home I gingerly remove my bra and look in the mirror – it looks like somebody has stuck a Jammy Dodger on my front. I’m concerned the dressing needs replacing and email Giles to see if I need to go the nurse at my GP or if I can change the dressing myself – he advises DIY would be fine. I remove the dressing and clean around the stitching – it doesn’t look as bad as I thought. The blue ‘hedgehog’ stitching is non-dissolving and will need to be removed. The scar from my mastectomy is now slightly shorter, but if I’m honest, perhaps not quite as short as I had hoped. In the middle is a roundish nub of pink scar tissue that does look indeed quite like a ‘nipple’. I’m impressed but remind myself that its appearance will change as it heals. I quickly (and badly) apply a new dressing and try not to think on it too much for the time being.