83 Staples Later

I am officially staple free! They were removed early yesterday morning. Leading up to the day I definitely had some mixed feelings. I was super excited to know I was getting all my staples removed. It was another huge step in my recovery. At the same time however, I was pretty nervous with the anticipation that it was probably going to be a little painful. No one knew how many staples there were but we estimated it would be approaching 100.

I have to say, it wasn't nearly as painful or uncomfortable as I thought it would be. There were definitely some staples that were more painful to remove than others which I had assumed there would be, but overall the process wasn't all that bad. As my nurse began taking them out I did ask if we could count them because I knew people were going to ask me how many there had been. And I wanted to know how many there had been! We didn't count them as they came out (which probably would have made the process seem all that much longer). She left them in a pile for me and said I was free to count them. 83 staples!!! Not quite 100 but pretty darn close. There is also a small section of my incision that was not closed with staples and had it been I think I would have hit 100.

A big reason I was excited to be getting the staples out was the sooner that happened the sooner I would be allowed in a pool. Although I'm not allowed to put weight on my right side, I am allowed to do some light exercise/strengthening in the pool. This includes using a flutter board and trying to kick with my right leg. I figure the more I'm able to attempt this, the sooner I will be able to start actual physiotherapy. I have to wait a couple days but I should be in the pool in about a week, at which point I'll have to figure out how I'm actually going to get in and out of it.

Physically it doesn't feel a whole lot different having the staples out. However, just knowing they are no longer there make me feel a little more free and healed somehow.