Surgery update

Well my Dear Hubby's alarm went off at 3am yesterday morning. I just rolled over and groaned. He asked me what time my alarm was set for. I said 4 am. I figured I could get up and be ready to go in 30 minutes! Anyway, we did get up and were on the road by 4:15. I had time to leave a long list for each child and a note to say I loved them! We were in town an hour before I needed to report at the hospital. I decided we had enough time to do our Walmart run. The list was short, the store empty and I had great help. I love Walmart at 5:30 in the morning, go early, leave happy! So with that item off our list, I reported for surgery at 6:30. This time I was back at the hospital where my original red flag mammograms were done. It is the preferred facility for my plastic surgeon. I even had my favorite breast cancer survivor nurse to do my IV. She is 3 years post diagnosis and doing well. My regular nurse looked at my veins and said, I'm not touching you, you have little veins. I had warned her to avoid my hands. Every time they start IVs they want to start with my hands and they always have to restart and it's a pain. So this time, i just told them, they were off limits. They went higher and got it the first time and we were all happy. The anesthesia doc was a real character and Dr. N was in fine form as well. I was in surgery by 7:30 and started coming to about 10:30. This hospital even provides their patients with massages. That was nice. I was home about 2:30. I've had some pain, but only did 2 small pain doses yesterday and just regular Tylenol today. It just getting over the anesthesia feeling, so I'm sleepy and take naps willingly! The kids say I'm doing much better than when I came home after my first surgery. Because of the nipple reconstruction, I'm wearing nipple protectors for the next six weeks, you know, the kind we tried when we were nursing our kids. They are a challenge to get on with the surgical bra and they fill with drainage which can be a mess if I'm not careful. Hopefully the drainage will stop in a couple of days. Dr. N did revise my incisions some, but those I leave alone with steri strips until I see her in two weeks. Anyway,I know that it will look a lot better in 6 weeks than it did this morning! The house is quiet as DH and Cat Lover went on a business trip once I got home. We played a game last night and I helped Inventor with school. We also had a great teen discussion last night. It's such a joy to listen to their hearts! Today, it's cloudy and rainy, the perfect day to snuggle up with a blanket, a book and cat. Thanks to everyone for their prayers! I appreciate you so much!

Here I go Again

Well, May 30 is surgery day.  Supposedly it's scheduled for early morning.  Hopefully this procedure will be under 2 hours and since it's not horribly invasive like my January surgery, I  hope to be headed home by noon.  After visiting with the Physician's Assistant last week.  I know that I will have incision care for the next 6 weeks, but no drains and I probably won't need a lot of pain meds, there just aren't many nerves functioning in my breast skin any more.

Dr. N will do bilateral nipple reconstruction and tattoo the aerolas in as well.  She will also revise the incisions and remove the extra skin left after my last surgery.

So how do I feel almost 5 months post-op?  Pretty good most of the time!
*I still do not have the stamina that I did last fall.  My eyelids close just after 9pm usually and stay that way for a good 8 hours.
*I'm still timid or lack the chest wall strength to do heavy garden/lawn work that involves using chest muscles.
*My chest still feels strange.  It will never feel the same and at some point, my mind will hopefully adapt to the new normal.  With my mastectomy went all those estrogen receptors that created painful, swollen breasts every month.  So while there is no normal sensation in my chest, there also isn't the pain I used to live with.
*About the time we returned from our trip, I noticed the implants had started to settle and created a normal looking inframammary fold at the base of the breast. Dr. N. stitched this in at my mastectomy and it looked strange for the longest time.  The stitches have now dissolved and the results look and feel really good.

*That lymph node biopsy site is still pesky.  Women who undergo radical mastectomies or have to have large numbers of lymph nodes removed have my great respect!  It gets tight, sometimes there is slight swelling or just strange sensations.