Discovery Health Channel starring ME!

You will all be certified medical students after reading this blog OR you will feel like you are watching the Discovery Health Channel :)

This first appointment with my plastic surgeon was highly anticipated because it isn't just a "check-up" on the surgery it is the first step in phase 2 of my reconstruction.  I also have a second cousin who is going through this exact same process but is about 3 weeks ahead of me.  So, having been in contact with her I knew that this first appointment was going to be painful... more pain... JOY! 

So, I went into battle prepared and on heavier doses of pain meds.  Three things were going to happen at this appointment: 1) Checking the wounds for proper healing, 2) Removal of 2 drain tubes, and 3) "Expansion"- the filling of my tissue expanders with saline which are preparing my body for implants in a few months.  The easy part: the wounds are healing fabulously and Duane got a high five from the staff for great wound care :) I also got the OK that 2 drains would be removed but she wanted to do the expansion first.  Oh, the expansion-- hang on folks this gets interesting!

I have a tissue expander on each side placed under my chest muscles. A tissue expander is a sack that they fill with saline to stretch out my muscles and such to prepare a place for the artificial implants to go.  There is a port on each expander and that is the "port of entry" where they can inject more saline into me.  How do they find this said port if it is IN my body you ask: there is a magnet in my expander and they place a magnet on my skin, find it, and mark it. It was very odd!  Anyway, then it is as painfully simple as sticking small needle into my chest and filling the internal sack with saline.  It is again very odd!  So I walked into my appointment at one size up top and walked out... bigger and feeling like at any moment my chest was going to cause me to fall flat on my face! A few word pictures would be: imagine carrying an anchor around your neck or walking around wearing one of those weighted vests like the super athletic people do when they workout.  That is how I now feel and it is quite an awful feeling.  My neck, upper back, and lower back are very mad at me!  And this is just the beginning-- expansion is a process and a painful process over several weeks until you get to a "size" that you are happy with. So I have a few weeks here that are apparently going to be quite dreadful all in the name of attempting to return a piece of my womanhood. However, the pain is starting to make me far LESS attached to my "womanhood"!

Now to the drain tubes part of the appointment which made Duane feel like he was watching a show on the Discovery Health Channel.  It was very, very odd!  As I have mentioned before the drain tubes drain the fluid that builds up in void that was created from the removal of my breast tissue.  I had 2 on each side of my body located just below my underarms.  When the drain tube isn't draining a significant amount of fluid any more they consider its job done and remove the tube.  I was very excited about this because I was getting tired of trying to keep Mason from pulling on my drain cords, tired of sitting on them, or getting them caught on something.  What a bother!  But the idea of them taking out something that is SEWN into my body in a NORMAL EXAM ROOM-- this isn't surgery people-- made me a little nervous.  So here is how it went down: she removed the protective tape over the drain site, made some sort of cut somewhere, and then told me that this next part was going to feel a little "weird".  I turned my head because I believe in "see no pain, feel no pain" but the look on Duane's face was priceless! She literally began to pull a tube out from my body... and kept pulling... and kept pulling! It was like the clown trick where they pull the handkerchiefs out of their mouths and then it just keeps coming out and keeps coming out.  When all was said and done she had pulled 8 INCHES of tubing from one side of my body.  Duane about lost his lunch! I mean how crazy is that?!  Another amazing part is the fact that the "wound site" where the tube was inserted into my body just closes itself... heals itself... it is like a minor cut! The human body is truly AMAZING-- can I get an AMEN? :)  Of course, the same thing had to be done on the other side and it was!

The appointment finished up with normal goodbyes and being told that they need me back on WEDNESDAY to do this all over again...