I'm finally here. I was just having too much trouble trying to type on my little Kindle keyboard with my T-rex arms. I got to ride the lift chair and made it upstairs to use an actual computer. This is still uncomfortable but much easier. So let's review the week so far.
I arrived at the hospital on Monday morning @ 6:30 AM. I went through all of the pre-op activities - vitals taken, a million questions answered, IV placed, pepcid taken then Dr. Hall drew on me and it was time to roll. From what I hear, they got started around 9 AM and I was out in less than 4 hours. That's still a long time but much shorter than the maximum time estimate. Yay! I had a little nausea in recovery the last time but I remembered to let them know this time so I got a patch. That means I woke to pain only, not pain and nausea. Yay!
I woke up a bit in recovery and was off to my room. The pain was a little harder to manage this time around. I guess that should be unexpected since I have an incision on my back and lots on my front. The first 24 hours were a real challenge. There were a lot of tears, I'm not going to lie. And I have never cried over pain, even after my mastectomy. I figured out later that most of the pain was coming from the expanders. We didn't think they'd be filled for another 6 months but Dr. Hall was so happy with the way everything was going, she went ahead and added some fluid to the expanders. Yay for the head start, Boo for the discomfort. Remember, I'm all about full disclosure so I'm not going to tell you that it was all better quickly. Nope, we've just been able to knock the edge off but it's finally tolerable.
As expected, I woke up with 3 drains and a pain catheter in my back. That thing is working WONDERFULLY because I've had no issues with my back. I'm still very sore on the front but I'm happy to say that I can already raise my right arm above my head. My left side is a little more complicated. There's more swelling on that side, more fluid, more pain. Remember the muscle from my back is still attached in the back. It's pulled through a "tunnel" under my arm. Over time the muscle will atrophy but that hasn't happened yet. Add to that, the fluid/swelling and it feels like I have a tennis ball under my arm. You can see it through my clothes...it's that large. Lovely, right? I can raise the left arm to shoulder level and I'm working on doing more, a little at a time.
The "fooblettes" are currently looking like Dr. Frankenstein did my surgery - especially the left side. Some skin came along with the muscle from my back so she had to make a place for that and sew it all together. They will look much better over time but I have to say, it's nice to have something other than dent there. I'm actually convex rather than concave now. (did I get those right?). Anyway, Dr. Hall is very happy with the look of the skin. She said that the blood flow to the flap is much better than she would have ever expected. That's good!
Time for a break. Back to finish later....
Ok, I'm back and I'm home! YAY!!
So, other than pain, I had minimal complications this time around. On Monday, I had some fluid issues and my left hand puffed up and my fingers looked like sausages. I couldn't make a fist. It appears that it was due to the fluid they were pumping in to me and the fact that I left my left hand hanging down because it was painful to move it. After we noticed the swelling, we propped my left arm up on pillows for the remainder of my hospital stay and it came down. It's very close to normal now. I was just sure that it was lymphedema.
I once again had a reaction to the prep stuff. It happened pretty quickly this time so Bobby (bless his heart) had to try to get that junk off of me. They cleaned most of it off my chest right after surgery but there was still a good amount of it left on my back. When Bobby was trying to clean it off, he had to rinse the washcloth 5-6 times. Thankfully, everyone acted quickly so it was better fairly quickly. Bobby cleaned off the prep and ink and they gave me Benadryl...in my IV. It helped with the itching and also knocked me out.
I have not, yet, tried to figure out how many stitches I have. It's a lot. I finally caught a glimpse of the incision on my back today and it's larger than I expected. Not a big deal though.
The only other challenge is trying to keep the muscles from tightening up. It's pretty easy when I'm up and about but it becomes a problem when I sleep. With all of my tubes and bit of pain, I have to sleep propped up and can't roll onto either side. Sleeping in one position means my muscles get no stretch while I'm sleeping. When I get up it takes a while to loosen everything back up again.
So, there's my update. The first 48 hours this time around have been the most challenging of all of my surgeries. More pain, more discomfort, needed more help...etc. Thankfully we got through it but it was not a fun time.
I'm off to take care of my drains and then try to stay awake for a little while.
Thank you to everyone who called, texted, messaged or came to visit. I appreciate everyone's love and support and positive vibes. It makes all the difference.
Back tomorrow.
Love to all
Andee
I arrived at the hospital on Monday morning @ 6:30 AM. I went through all of the pre-op activities - vitals taken, a million questions answered, IV placed, pepcid taken then Dr. Hall drew on me and it was time to roll. From what I hear, they got started around 9 AM and I was out in less than 4 hours. That's still a long time but much shorter than the maximum time estimate. Yay! I had a little nausea in recovery the last time but I remembered to let them know this time so I got a patch. That means I woke to pain only, not pain and nausea. Yay!
I woke up a bit in recovery and was off to my room. The pain was a little harder to manage this time around. I guess that should be unexpected since I have an incision on my back and lots on my front. The first 24 hours were a real challenge. There were a lot of tears, I'm not going to lie. And I have never cried over pain, even after my mastectomy. I figured out later that most of the pain was coming from the expanders. We didn't think they'd be filled for another 6 months but Dr. Hall was so happy with the way everything was going, she went ahead and added some fluid to the expanders. Yay for the head start, Boo for the discomfort. Remember, I'm all about full disclosure so I'm not going to tell you that it was all better quickly. Nope, we've just been able to knock the edge off but it's finally tolerable.
As expected, I woke up with 3 drains and a pain catheter in my back. That thing is working WONDERFULLY because I've had no issues with my back. I'm still very sore on the front but I'm happy to say that I can already raise my right arm above my head. My left side is a little more complicated. There's more swelling on that side, more fluid, more pain. Remember the muscle from my back is still attached in the back. It's pulled through a "tunnel" under my arm. Over time the muscle will atrophy but that hasn't happened yet. Add to that, the fluid/swelling and it feels like I have a tennis ball under my arm. You can see it through my clothes...it's that large. Lovely, right? I can raise the left arm to shoulder level and I'm working on doing more, a little at a time.
The "fooblettes" are currently looking like Dr. Frankenstein did my surgery - especially the left side. Some skin came along with the muscle from my back so she had to make a place for that and sew it all together. They will look much better over time but I have to say, it's nice to have something other than dent there. I'm actually convex rather than concave now. (did I get those right?). Anyway, Dr. Hall is very happy with the look of the skin. She said that the blood flow to the flap is much better than she would have ever expected. That's good!
Time for a break. Back to finish later....
Ok, I'm back and I'm home! YAY!!
So, other than pain, I had minimal complications this time around. On Monday, I had some fluid issues and my left hand puffed up and my fingers looked like sausages. I couldn't make a fist. It appears that it was due to the fluid they were pumping in to me and the fact that I left my left hand hanging down because it was painful to move it. After we noticed the swelling, we propped my left arm up on pillows for the remainder of my hospital stay and it came down. It's very close to normal now. I was just sure that it was lymphedema.
I once again had a reaction to the prep stuff. It happened pretty quickly this time so Bobby (bless his heart) had to try to get that junk off of me. They cleaned most of it off my chest right after surgery but there was still a good amount of it left on my back. When Bobby was trying to clean it off, he had to rinse the washcloth 5-6 times. Thankfully, everyone acted quickly so it was better fairly quickly. Bobby cleaned off the prep and ink and they gave me Benadryl...in my IV. It helped with the itching and also knocked me out.
I have not, yet, tried to figure out how many stitches I have. It's a lot. I finally caught a glimpse of the incision on my back today and it's larger than I expected. Not a big deal though.
The only other challenge is trying to keep the muscles from tightening up. It's pretty easy when I'm up and about but it becomes a problem when I sleep. With all of my tubes and bit of pain, I have to sleep propped up and can't roll onto either side. Sleeping in one position means my muscles get no stretch while I'm sleeping. When I get up it takes a while to loosen everything back up again.
So, there's my update. The first 48 hours this time around have been the most challenging of all of my surgeries. More pain, more discomfort, needed more help...etc. Thankfully we got through it but it was not a fun time.
I'm off to take care of my drains and then try to stay awake for a little while.
Thank you to everyone who called, texted, messaged or came to visit. I appreciate everyone's love and support and positive vibes. It makes all the difference.
Back tomorrow.
Love to all
Andee