Franken-Boobie

I survived my surgery.  It was of course, a little nerve racking as it included a foley catheter (which I begged them not to do, because of the risk for UTI's -- I had some when I was younger and boy do they suck!), intubation and lets not forget just plain old cutting into my chest for 3 hours. 

My breasts are definitely higher, but I am (so they say) pretty swollen.  He did indeed remove about a 1/2 lb. from each.  I have sutures entirely around both my aereolas and from my side below my armpit pretty much to my sternum and from the bottom of my aereola down.  My old nursing school buddies lovingly named me Franken-boobie when I met them for dinner one night.  Apparently, my breast tissue is pretty dense which makes for some heavy solid boobies -- yippee.  It also means it may take forever to heal.  I think I thought I would see more of the finished product right away, but it looks like it will be a good 3 months before the girls are at the pre-planned size.  I am swollen enough now I am at best a 36D.  I can squeeze into my 34s, but with all the swelling it can be a little tight and uncomfortable on my sides. 

The procedure itself was pretty easy for me.  Once I received my IV and my surgical team confirmed with me about 8 times that we were doing a mastopexy with reduction, the doc took a marker and drew lines and dots where he wanted my new boobies to be.  All I had to do then was just walk into the operating room hop up on the table lean back and within less than a minute I had new breasts.  Well, it wasn't really a minute, but they spared no time in knocking me out that's for sure.  I was glad because I couldn't eat or drink anything after midnight and it had taken over and hour to go from check-in to the OR, so I had time to get nervous, that's for sure.  AH was so nervous I told him to go home and rest or go to the main building and get some food or shop, but he just sat in the Crile building diligently watching the screens to see when I was in OR and PACU.

I was able to follow commands almost immediately.  My vitals were stable and i had no reactions to the general anesthesia.  When I'd had my wisdom teeth out I'd woken up crying and hysterical and the nurses spent a good 5 minutes trying to calm me down, over what I will never know.  I had a burning pain that I told them was maybe a 3-4 on a scale of 1-10 and without even asking they just gave me some fentanyl and boy did that stuff work fast.  My pain was a 1 within a few minutes.  The only problem was my head was floating and I thought I was going to vomit.  They jammed some zofran in my IV with no improvement and then pepcid.  Neither worked.  I fought to stay awake and prove I was okay to myself.  I muched on some water and graham crackers, but the crackers made the nausea worse.  After about an hour they took out my IV, told me to get dressed and brought in a wheelchair.  Just like that I was all done. 

A transporter wheeled me down to the first floor where AH had pulled up the car and I gingerly transferred from the wheelchair into the front passengers seat.  I didn't where my seatbelt as the band on my chest hurt and every little bump in the road jarred my breasts and caused a little pain.  I complained to AH his driving was hurting me, so he started swerving more to avoid bumps, but that just made me feel like I was going to vomit.  Finally after an hour drive in the car we made it home and I thankfully laid down in the recliner. 

I ended up having to change the bandages a few times the first two days because of the drainage, but then they only needed changing once a day after that.  It's been a little over 2 weeks and I can almost sleep comfortably on my sides.  I do however sleep in a bra and I have since the surgery, which isn't very comfortable, but it's improving each day, albeit slowly.  The steri-strips are off and the sutures will disolve on their own.  I had to go to the doctor yesterday, because I felt like I had a UTI (I knew that damn foley was going to give me one!!) and they put me on antibiotics for a few days.  Now it's just a matter of time and a whole lot of patience as I watch the girls heal and hopefully shrink.