u/JadedAbroad

I found these at Walmart today. I have a nut allergy as well as being gluten free and I had accepted that protein bars just wouldn’t be something I could eat anymore. The only bars I’ve ever been able to find that are both gluten and nut free were the MadeGood ones which only have 3 grams of protein and are mostly just carbs which is fine but it’s nice to have a snack that’s a bit more nutritionally dense sometimes. I haven’t actually tried them yet so fingers crossed they actually taste good lol

On a semi-related note I feel like allergy friendly brands need to be banned from having the word “good” in their names. It’s getting a bit ridiculous.

As of the beginning of this month it’s officially been 6 months since my dog ear removal surgery!

My surgery was done under general anesthesia as my dog ears were too big for my surgeon to feel comfortable doing it in the office with local anesthetic. Honestly a bit of a relief for me as doing it awake sounded terrifying lol

Recovery was so much easier than the first time around. No drains, no compression, and restrictions were lifted a couple weeks sooner, so being able to life my arms above my shoulders at 2 weeks vs 4 weeks and being cleared for full normal activities at 4 weeks vs 6 weeks. I did pop a couple inches of my incision open in my sleep 2 weeks out and had to get it restitched closed which pushed my restrictions a bit longer (if you look closely at photo 3 you can see the little spots around my scar where the stitches were though they’re fading fast), but still a breeze compared to the first time around. The hardest part was that I was supposed to sleep on my stomach for the first 2 weeks since my incisions went a few inches onto my back which sucked, though not as bad as sleeping on my back the first time, and also I couldn’t figure out for the life of me how to get on my stomach without using my arms to lower myself down. I ended up just sort of half falling half rolling onto my side with my arm tucked underneath me so it was protecting my incision as slowly as possible and then rolling the rest of the way and then kept waking up on my side or back anyways no matter how many pillows I used to try to keep myself still. I didn’t have any issues with this until that one fateful night 2 weeks out where I made the stupid decision that I was probably far enough out to maybe ease up on the pillows a bit and then woke up with my incision open, I assume because I made it possible to move enough to put my arm up under my head and didn’t feel enough tension or pain for my unconscious mind to know to stop because my right armpit is still pretty numb from the first surgery. All in all it didn’t impact my recovery or results much at all though so oh well.

Also a great demonstration of how scars heal long term! You can see, especially in photo 3, that my scars from my revision are still pretty red at 6 months out compared to my original scars. If your scars are still redder than you’d like at 6 months don’t fret, they’ll continue to heal and lighten with time!

All in all I’m so glad I got this surgery done! It was a bit nerve wracking since it was hard to find much information about recovery would be like and while the dog ears bothered me aesthetically in tight shirts or tank tops with looser arm holes where they showed I didn’t *hate* them so I wasn’t sure going through another surgery would be worth it. It absolutely was though! I’m so much happier with my results and more confident going topless and wearing all my clothes and not just the ones that hide my sides. Plus my underarms don’t chafe at all when I wear shirts with loose armholes or go topless which they used to do bc of the extra skin there. If you’re wanting a a revision for dog ears but are feeling apprehensive I absolutely recommend going for it!

Photos 1-3 are today 6 months post revision and a year and 8 months post my first surgery
Photos 4-6 are the day before my revision about a year and 3 months post my first surgery

I work at a children’s museum. We recently got a new set of food toys for our play pretend grocery store exhibit and it included this. It is now officially referred to exclusively at “the poop roll” amongst the staff.