Squishy

I'm at home relaxing and healing.  Like I said here I welcomed my reconstruction. The night before I had a hard time falling asleep because I was so excited, but somehow I made it happen. It felt like ten minutes later and I was tired-eyed and groggy, hitting snooze eight times before I realized that it was time to finish this and hopped out of bed!  My surgery was scheduled for July 30th at 9:15 AM, with having to be at the hospital by 7:15 AM.  My mom, the hubs and I got were brought into the room and got settled in.  I got changed into the very fashion forward gown and socks that the hospital provides then sat on the bed...Each minute that went by I was getting more and more anxious, until a nurse came in and told me that my implants weren't at the hospital yet so my surgery time was being switched with another patients and my surgery time was pushed back to 12:15.  Damn, kind of a bummer but it's not like I had dinner plans that night anyways. Not long after that my surgeon came in.  He marked me up so he had a guideline on what was staying, what was going and placement and was followed by the Anesthesiologist.

To be honest I was more worried about having my IV put in, then the actual surgery.  Anyone who has been reading this knows that I had my lymph nodes removed on my right side, thus leaving that arm practically unusable (except in an emergency).  All of my blood draws (before my port being installed) for my fertility treatments (here and here) left the veins in my left arm pretty much shot unless they are skilled, so this part made me a little nervous.  I was pleased to say he got it done the first time and was ready to rock.  I love Anesthesiologists, they are amazing. Wham, bam thank you ma'am your IV is in!

So as the story goes, not long after that I was wheeled down to Day Surgery where I was met with some amazing nurses who made me feel comfortable for the five minutes I can remember.  Then I was out. Touche...they got me again.  Then what felt like another five minutes later I was awake in recovery and eventually wheeled back to my room.  The great thing about this surgery is I wasn't nauseous and I didn't spend the rest of the day throwing up. (Which I attribute mostly to the anti nausea patch that I ALWAYS get now before surgeries)  I was tired though. Really, really, really tired.....And sore.  After taking an extended nap, I finally felt to a point where I was ready to go home.  So after the paperwork was done, IV was out I was wheeled downstairs and taken home!

The night wasn't terrible, we had our routine down.  This wasn't our first rodeo...  I came home, we got the recliner set up as my temporary home, ice water, iPad, phone, chargers set up, emptied my drains, picked at the tape on my chest because it itched terribly.  We noticed that day that my right drain was putting out a LOT more fluid/blood/etc than the left side, but I didn't think much of it since I just had the surgery that day. From the time that I came home to the next morning at approximately 8:00 AM, my right drain had put out 325cc's of fluid.  The left put out only 70cc's.  Huge difference!  So following my gut I called my plastic surgeon and he told me to come right in.  Once I got in there and he took a look at the numbers he decided it was best to go back in and see if there was any areas that were bleeding.  So under anesthesia I go again. The procedure only took about 30 minutes, then I spent about an hour in recovery.  The doctor found in the surgery that the right muscle was tore and was the cause of the bleeding.  So he went in, took the implant out, cleaned out the area, stopped the bleeding, put the implant back in and stitched me back up!  I woke up groggy, in some pain but after some meds I was feeling decent! After the second surgery I had no issues with drainage and they were removed after four days.

Yes.  I used a Cars band aid to cover my drain hole.  Who wouldn't?

Like clockwork, sweet June Bug has been my shadow.  I go to the bathroom.  She comes with.  I get something from the fridge.  She is right there.  (Regardless, surgery or not she would be).  I lay on the recliner.  She is right up on it snuggling with me.  This pup is pretty amazing!

So for progress...this is what I had before the surgery:

This is what I had when I came home from my second surgery:

And since the surgery my swelling has gone down significantly and I'm really digging how they are turning out.

Since my surgery I've been dealing with pain under my left boob that starts if I sit, stand or walk for any period of time.  Lovely, doesn't really leave me with many options for painless relaxation.  I had one day where I wasn't feeling any discomfort and totally thought I was on the other side of things.  Nope.  Next morning woke up and was the pain came back with a vengeance.  And the itchiness. It's intense and all over. I know it's because I'm healing, but try having an itch you can't scratch!  That's me. All over.  I see my surgeon on Tuesday, August 12th to see about getting the tape over the incisions off and to see about different techniques to lessen the scar tissue...Definitely looking forward to it!