Hi all!

It's been a week since my last post and, oh, what a week it has been. I've waited until now to post because I didn't want to whine. The point here is to share information, not complain. So here are the facts.

I started the week with 3 drains and a gazillion stitches. On Tuesday morning, I thought I would lose the stitches and a 1 maybe 2 drains. Lucky me, I hit the post-surgery jackpot! Everything came out at once. I didn't even get woozy this time, but that back drain was a booger. I hope that this is my last experience with drains. I hate those things. Have I mentioned that before?

Now, even though I loathe drains, they serve a very important purpose. They help remove fluid after surgery but they have to come out or there is a risk of infection. In my case, they had to come out while at least one of them was still pulling a lot of fluid. With no drain, the fluid has nowhere to go...so what happens to it? It builds up. Eventually the body will start to reabsorb the fluid but it can build up. It's ugly, it's uncomfortable and if you want to get rid of it, it requires a big ol' needle to aspirate it. As you might have already guessed, I have some fluid build up. I've tried the compression bandage, like I did after surgery number 1, but it's pretty uncomfortable with the expanders. I might go so far as to say that it hurts. As a result, I wear it for a little while and then take it off.

At my appointment on Tuesday, my doctor said everything was looking good (relatively speaking, of course) and she even toyed with the idea of adding some fluid to the expanders...but she did not (thank you!). She will be adding fluid this week when I go back. Fluid was added during surgery and I had a good amount of pain but I'm not sure how much of that was from the muscle move and how much was from addition of the expanders and the fill. I'm hoping it will be tolerable. I'll find out soon enough and I'll share the details here.

I'll be back tomorrow. it's time for some restless sleep.

Love to all,
Andee