I'm alive
I'm alive, I'm home, and all is well. I haven't actually gotten a good look at my boobs yet other than peeking down my bra (although Jason has tended to my gauze and says they look pretty good, albeit bruised in spots). I've read that lots of people are disappointed their breasts don't look perfect immediately, and that disappointment combined with soreness and lack of sleep and narcotics tends to upset them just a bit. So I'm waiting until I'm in a clearer state of mind before inspecting myself. But everything feels better than expected - I don't have much pain, just a general soreness. I'm hoping to downgrade from Percocet to Tylenol by the end of the weekend. And I haven't had any nausea other than when I first woke up in recovery, so I've gotten to avoid being in even more pain as I hunch over a toilet or bucket.
Oh, and they're super-firm and super-perky; my doctor's assistant, who had the same surgery in February, told me to take them for a spin and buy some cute halter tops since I won't need a bra. AWESOME.
We only had to wait about 30 minutes in the day surgery waiting room yesterday before they took me back and began prepping for surgery. The nurse helped me get changed and tucked me into bed with warm blankets, and I cringed and stared at the wall while she put my IV in - I have a pretty high pain threshold, but I can't stand needles. She went to get Jason from the waiting room, and Dr. Tuchler came in with his sharpie and measuring tape and a plastic boobie template that he used to figure out where to make his incisions. He moved my nipple up about two inches (and made the areola smaller) and according to the lines he drew beforehand, he removed almost all the skin on the bottom half of my breast and brought in the sides to lift everything up.
I don't remember much of the recovery room, other than vomiting twice. I couldn't even open my eyes, so I just heard what was going on. And then I passed out again and woke up some time later in my room. Jason was there and happy to see me, and he patted my arm and hovered for a while before settling down in the recliner and watching me drift in and out of sleep all afternoon. I finally worked up the nerve to go to the bathroom by late afternoon, which involved rolling my IV around, making sure not to swing my drains around (I had a tube coming out of each armpit attached to a bulb-shaped plastic container about the size of a computer mouse), and unhooking myself from the circulation leg cuffs. Thanks to the IV, I ended up going to the bathroom about every three hours, and at about 4 am I was strong enough to get in and out of bed and move things around by myself without waking Jason up. They gave me antibiotics via IV during the night and the nurse was pleased enough with my progress to remove me from the IV pretty early the next morning. Dr. Tuchler came in at 6:30 and removed my drains, and that was the most pain I've felt to this point - everything feels stiff and sore, but him pulling out the tubes was a sharp, intense pain.
I ordered breakfast and lounged around for a while before my day nurse brought in the discharge papers. She found me another surgical compression bra, since the one I was wearing had some dried blood on it from surgery, so I have two now and can wash one while I'm wearing the other (it will probably be about a week before I'll feel comfortable enough to transition to a regular sports bra). We left the hospital at 10 am, and I've spent the day so far lounging on the couch, napping and taking all my drugs like a good girl.
So, at this point, things are going extremely well in the recovery department. I'm trying to drink lots of water and flush all the nasty out - my hands are so swollen my wedding ring won't fit on my finger, and my midsection looks like the malnourished belly of one of the from a "Save the ren" commercial. Even though they took out 2.5 pounds from each breast (more if that doesn't include skin and such), I was actually up about eight pounds when we got home and I weighed myself. I'm expecting that extra weight to go away pretty quickly.