5 Days Post-Op

Day 5 post-op dawns with me feeling muuucccchhhh better. The pain each day lessens and is well managed by the pain meds and muscle relaxers I was given. I have this secret wish to sleep thru the next few months and wake up when this is all over. If I continue taking the pain meds and muscle relaxers that could happen! Sleep is good, right? Keeps me from micro-managing Alan and my mom and all the household duties they now attend to. Like the other morning when I came downstairs and the kitchen was a mess? Nothing I can do about it so I just went back to my Lazy Boy and slept. I may never give that chair back to my folks.

This morning I went to see Dr. S (plastic surgeon) and he TOOK OUT MY DRAINS!! Oh boy, what a relief that is! Those things sucked. Had to tape the tubing to me and pin them to my shirt to keep them from pulling on me. Which sort of worked, but sometimes it pulled anyway. Drove me nuts. I had thought they would be in at least 10 days but as I had minimal drainage he took them out. I love that man.

Before my surgery he had told me that after he inserted the expanders he would close me up using glue and steri strips, but once I dared to peak at the area I saw stitches. Then I vaguely remembered having a brief talk with him Fri. AM while I was still in the hospital and doped up on morphine. He had told me then that he had done something different. When he called my Sun. to check on me I asked about the stitches, he said he was “trying something new.” Um…what? New? As in… you never did this before? So today I questioned him further on this “something new” and he said what he did will minimize my scarring. I don’t think I want to get into it tho, it’s pretty personal. But I can see his point. I have seen pictures of reconstructed breasts and I did notice a railroad track-like scarring going east to west. My stitched up area is only about 2  inches long on both sides. And once you throw a nipple in the middle….well….there won’t be much of a scar to see. Which is fine with me.

I did get the impression that while he may have used this method before, I’m the first person he used this method on breasts with. Which made me want to ask him again for a little gratis Botox.

And speaking of expanders, mine were immediately expanded with 120ml of saline. So I am not flat, I am more like the 12 year old me. Michelle even said I had little bumps and so I asked her how big should my new boobs be, and she held her hands up about a foot from each other. Ha! That would make Mike happy, but I would fall down!

I also have stitches at my port site, which is what hurts the most. I can see the bump of the port under my collar bone and I can see the catheter that goes from the port to the jugular vein. It’s gross looking. I hope it’s only so visible because it’s swollen and won’t be like that for the whole time it’s there. And there are stitches near my right armpit where the lymph nodes were removed. Did I mention THEY ONLY REMOVED 2 NODES AND NIETHER OF THEM HAD CANCER CELLS??? Anyway….at both those sites the stitches are the type that dissolve on their own. So good, one less thing to do.

And now I wait. Wait wait wait…till next Tuesday when I see Dr. C again and get my final pathology report. Oh boy…And wait till next Thursday when I see Dr. Sh (medical oncologist) again to find out what chemo cocktail I will be getting (although, at this point I think I know) and when chemo will start. Most likely the beginning of  July.