So my post might ramble on a little but I have several things I wanted to talk about in this post and we will see how long I can write before the words start to make less sense (took my nightly heavy meds). One of the reasons I started this blog was to talk about my feelings but also to talk about those things with cancer that no one wants to ask about or talk about.
Before my surgery, many people had said you did so well through chemo that surgery will be a breeze. I think of this statement daily because there is no comparison at all between chemo treatments and this surgery. Don't worry if you said this to me you wouldn't know but chemo was different yes I had bad days but I was able to just march through them with the surgery my bad days are generally painful and I can't just march through them instead I have to take meds and sleep/rest.
The day of my surgery I had a peace about it my only fear was a 4 hour surgery in which I would have a breathing tube and be placed on a ventilator when you are told that you start to freak a little.
But, I really did very well all morning until 5 min prior to them taking me back then I had a little anxiety about everything fortunately the anestegelogist took care of this by giving me some good stuff that I don't even remember leaving the prep room. As I woke up I am not sure that I felt like I was in horrible pain they place a very very tight compression bra on you so I didn't really see any bandages or such. For me also even though I lost all my original breast tissue I elected to have direct implants done this is not an option for everyone but I refused to have reconstruction done and multiple surgeries and honestly I had no problem being a much smaller size so I have found that people look at me weird when they see me not realizing that I do have a little something I am not flat and that is because I had small implants placed in at the time of the surgery. This is a picture of the compression bra - hold your breathe its very fancy and don't all run out to get one! As you can tell someone had already decorated my eyebrows - I believe this was Hannah's art work,
I just don't remember much about the recovery room but when it was time to move on to my regular room there was no lets roll your bed over it was you are getting up and in a wheel chair. Getting up required that you use your stomach muscles more with the assistance of the nurse - I guess I should of focused on getting those in shape more. I can recall a few things once I was in my room for the night that was falling asleep on the toilet and at the sink and my nurse telling me to wake back up. Once that was done and I was in bed and the compression things were on my legs to help avoid clots they let my visitors in. Of course my best friends Carla had been there all day getting updates from doctors, texting or posting updates to people and just being my person like she has for the past 6 months. Hannah also came to visit me I don't remember much of her visit she tells me she was feeding me cheez its and I was falling asleep she did not stay for long but she had wanted to see me and make sure I was okay. Then my friend Crystal came and brought a diet coke for me let me tell you I have heard that watching me drink the soda was quite entertaining I apparently enjoyed the soda more than my usual daily drinks. I also enjoyed my dinner after no food since the night before.
Then it was time to empty drains I had five drains attached to me through tubing into my chest that would drain extra fluid and stuff during the first days to weeks of my recovery. These really look like a bunch of grenades in my opinion. You can see a few of them in one of the pictures above.
After this and eating some food Carla went and got me a twix and a strawberry shake - your bff always knows what you need even though I fell asleep in the midst of drinking the shake. Prior to my surgery Carla and I thought it would be fun to draw funny eyebrows on every few hours to freak out my nurse. Can you tell I was on some heavy drugs in this picture the things your friends do to you when you are out of it but my eyes tell you that I am not with it - that's okay one day I will be caring for my friends and the fun I will have with them and if you know me I am always up for entertainment.
Overnight I know I got up a bit the biggest issue was my itching and I was maxing out the Benadryl my poor skin doesn't do well with adhesive and all kinds of things. I actually got up around 3 am and walked for 15 minutes and the best thing was I had my own personal nurse can you believe that a nice suite and not having to share anything with any other patients, I did behave and only hit my call button a few times.
The next morning after the Docs checked me I was ready to go home its amazing to think I had a 4 hour surgery the day before. We were able to get Dr. Curtis my plastic surgeon to pose for a picture however he said it was creepy and with my crazy eyebrows he felt like he was hanging with some of his uncles.
My nurse Shelly was AWESOME and I am sure she loved having me as a patient I mean who wouldn't but it was time to kick me out.
The ride home well have you ever been in a vehicle with Carla sometimes I have to put my passenger breaks on but she was fairly good to me ... we hit a few bumps on the way home that were painful but I think she wanted to just keep me on my toes.
Also once you are home those drains you have to empty and measure daily yourself I had some awesome friends take care of most of my bandages and drain work but look out my future doctor decided she needed to take charge of some of my care too,
PS the spellcheck doesn't want to work on my blog so you will just have to bear with any spelling and grammar issues and also realize that I took some meds too.
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