Post Surgery Life





It has been an interesting 4 days to say the least!  Tuesday, June 5th was the big surgery and boy what a day it was!  It was a day of lots of waiting.  I almost wonder if they were waiting on me to say, "Ya know... no thanks! I have decided not to go through with this, but thanks for the experience!"  Surgery was delayed almost 2 hours when we finally received the green light that the OR was all mine. The one picture above is where my surgical team initials the body parts that have been approved to remove. I found that interesting!

Everyone on my pre-op and surgical teams were very nice.  Duane was carrying around his Chick-fil-A work bag to get some work done while I was "under the knife" so the sight of the Chick-fil-A logo always sparks lots of conversation with everyone-- patients, doctors, and nurses.  I guess it was a good icebreaker and a good way to talk about anything but the obvious.  I do not remember anything after I was wheeled from my pre-op holding room to the OR.  I remember that Duane went right, I was wheeled left, and then I woke up back in the pre-op holding room and in pain and out of my wits.  Apparently, I was in surgery for 6 hours and Duane received many updates which he passed along via Facebook.  When I finally woke up it was by a very rude nurse who was shaking me and telling me to breathe.  I suppose I should be grateful that she wanted me to breathe but the whole experience freaked me out a little-- as that is not the way you want to be flung back into reality.  To top it off that nurse had a very strong accent of some sort so trying to understand what she was saying was very difficult in my very woozy state. I remember telling Duane out loud and with her present that I did not like her and wanted a different nurse. 

It took a while for me to get into my private room.  Finally at about midnight we got into a room and Duane was able to settle in.  The train of doctors, nurses, and assistants started in as soon as we got in the room.  They wanted to check everything and I kept letting them know that I was in P-A-I-N!  And that was the name of the game for the next few days.  They were hoping that I was going to be out by Wednesday afternoon but I was not leaving until they had my pain under control! And that took a while... they had to play with a mixture of meds, times, and dosage until we finally found the right pain med cocktail.  Luckily, I have a great tolerance for pain meds.  They do not make me sick or nauseous!  I suppose everyone would describe the pain differently.  My pain begins in my chest with intense pressure like someone is sitting on my chest and then radiates to my back.  It is the pain in the back that is the most uncomfortable and the most puzzling.  Someone called it referred pain-- I'm not getting wrapped up in terms-- I just know it hurts! My sides also hurt as this is where my drain tubes are sewn into my body so for obvious reasons that part of my body is sore!  I finally allowed them to release me after I was confident that I had a good handle on my pain and I went home at 4 pm on Thursday with a sack full of wound care supplies and medication. 

So, the home health care by my favorite man-nurse DUANE begins :) I just love him to pieces and I know that this recovery process will only make us closer.  We have a few responsibilities to make sure that I stay healthy. 

1) Drain Tube Care:  This is a drain tube bulb. I apologize if you are easily made queasy but this is reality!

When tissue is removed from the body the body goes into "fix-it" mode and wants to fill your new void with fluid; however, this fluid does not help in the healing process though so it has to be removed from the body so no infection occurs.  So, I have plastic tubing hanging from just below my underarms that are sewn into my body that hang down and lead into these round bulbs.  The fluid fills up the bulb and they have to be drained twice a day.  To drain it is very easy-- you pop off the top and squeeze fluid into a pre-marked dixie cup.  We also have to record the amount of fluid that the drain collected.  When the fluid gets under a certain amount of MLs then the drain tubes can be removed.  We are pretty confident that I will have 2 drains removed at my first follow-up appointment next Friday! Duane has added Drain Tube Expert to his resume :)

2) Medication: We realized very quickly that we needed to set alarms to keep my pain under control so we a line-up of bottles that I have to take throughout the day-- everything from stool softeners to antibiotics to the stuff that handles my pain!  I am a one-woman CVS right now ;)

3) Wound Care: I will spare you from that picture as Duane says that is TOO informative-- LOL! Although I am not ashamed of my incisions or my scars-- they are pretty crazy right now!  I have incisions that runs from one side of my breast to under my underarm on both sides.  Ladies can picture that much better but just know it spans the entire length of the breast.  So, we have to clean the incision and replace the dressing at least once a day.  I am totally clear to shower and I have once (even though I was totally nervous) but my mom helped me through that process. Duane was very nervous about applying the ointments and dressings (in fact he feels awful because when he watched the nurse do it in the hospital he almost passed out!) but he has come full circle and is a rockstar at it now! I am wearing a surgical bra 24 hours a day to protect my wounds and keep everything safe.  Ladies you can picture your first training bra-- hehe :)

So, now to answer your burning question: Does Erica have any boobs?  YES I DO! Since I am opting to have implants put in-- after they removed my breast tissue they put in tissue expanders which prepare my body for implants over time. However, my plastic surgeon was able to fill my expanders up with 400 CC of saline so I actually have small breasts to begin my reconstruction process.  Over the next few weeks we will concentrate on getting the drain tubes out, filling up the expanders, and preparing for phase two-- the implants-- down the road!  Now for lunch and a nap-- I'm exhausted :)