Hello readers! I'm alive!
I haven't had a chance to blog but, rest assured, I am well. But let's catch you up on what's been going on with my wound since I didn't update on Day 6.
After PS (post salabrasion) Day 3, I continued to be in pain for a few more days. I must admit that the tattoo was still very clear and even though we had done everything exactly right & knew that it would still be there, I'd sometimes worry because it wasn't fading & healing faster, wondering, "Did I do this for nothing?"
1 week in, we decided that the wound was not healing faster because it was constantly covered in triple antibiotic ointment &, therefore,not drying out & scabbing. A good thing, I'm sure, for the first few days but it was around this time that I could undress the area without being in horrible pain. Doubt had also begun to fade because with every cleaning, redressing & undressing, I could SEE a big difference. One time, I peeled off my dressing to find ink on the dressing in the exact shape of my tattoo. I thought that was pretty cool....& gross, but still.
For the past few days, I haven't been dressing it at all. It's dry. The ink is almost completely gone but because of the scabbing & drying, there are times that it gets insanely itchy. Just 3 nights ago, it got so bad that it felt like torture. TORTURE!!! I couldn't stop myself, really, & I ended up making myself bleed. The fear of infection is very much still there so I cleaned it thoroughly & made a promise to myself to not allow myself to do that again, no matter how itchy. Damage was done though, & I set my healing back by days. It's back to post-scratching condition now though.
I think I might be holding healing back now with the antibiotic ointment now since scabbing is very slow, with only some areas starting to scab. I'm not sure. I'm going to have to consult a health care professional here on how to proceed.
The wound itself looks bad, I won't lie. It looks like raw skin mostly even though it's not. I believe it's that clear coating that covers a wound in the natural healing process so it FEELS rough, it FEELS scabbed but it's not entirely. I've been doing neck stretches too so as to keep the skin naturally stretchable in the neck.
For those who think it looks bad, because it does, remember the scar will shrink eventually 40-80%, it's not going to have the same pigment it does now &, more importantly, I knew it would scar &, as I've said before, I'd MUCH, MUCH rather have a scar than the tattoo!! Ha ha.
As for my working out, I actually only took a week off & got back on schedule last week, much to my husbands dismay. It hurt some, of course, but I expected that. I'm crazy, I know.
I keep hearing it. :)
