Good morning,
It's 2:30 AM and I'm awake and a little uncomfortable. That means its the perfect time to write while I wait for my Motrin to kick in. I will finally fill you in on all that was done today.
A note to those of you who are interested in some semi-gross pictures of my experience today, feel free to stop by the pictures (discretion advised) section. I posted a couple of pictures.
Now, on to the procedures. As you know, this year has been the year of reconstruction. The journey started on January 11 with surgery #1. Surgery #2 was on February 1. Then came exapansion from February through September. Surgery #4 was on September 26 and we swapped out expander for implants. Surgery #4 took place today and was really a collection of procedures. This should be the last major surgery of the process. What a road it has been!
Today I was scheduled for the following:
It's 2:30 AM and I'm awake and a little uncomfortable. That means its the perfect time to write while I wait for my Motrin to kick in. I will finally fill you in on all that was done today.
A note to those of you who are interested in some semi-gross pictures of my experience today, feel free to stop by the pictures (discretion advised) section. I posted a couple of pictures.
Now, on to the procedures. As you know, this year has been the year of reconstruction. The journey started on January 11 with surgery #1. Surgery #2 was on February 1. Then came exapansion from February through September. Surgery #4 was on September 26 and we swapped out expander for implants. Surgery #4 took place today and was really a collection of procedures. This should be the last major surgery of the process. What a road it has been!
Today I was scheduled for the following:
- Nipple tattoos. They're baaaaaack! I haven't seen them yet since I have to leave the bandages on until tomorrow but I know they are there. There is blood-soaked gauze there to prove it.
- With mastectomy and reconstruction you can end up with pockets of fat and skin on your side under the arms. Yes, it is as ugly as it sounds and it's apparently very common.Today that fat was removed. Yes, I had lipo on my side. EEK!
- Some skin was also excised from my side.
- I also had lipo to remove fat from my abdomen to be used for fat grafting.
- Fat grafting - This needed to be done due to very deep scars that needed to be filled. When I say deep, I mean deep. Remember, after my mastectomy, I was "boobless" for 2 years so the remaining skin and tissue settled into its own arrangement so deep scars remained even after lat flap surgery, expansion and implants. I said deep and I meant deep. The fat that was removed was then added to the breast to help fill in the scars. Fascinating process. You can watch the whole lipo to grafting procedure on YouTube if you want hurt right along with me.
- Finally, I had some additional skin excised from my right breast. I had a "dog ear" (I don't make these terms up) that she worked on and also had the Skin Cancer Scare spot (from July) removed as well.
As a result of the above I have multiple incisions, a good amount of soreness, continued leaking from the holes in my body, and I'm developing some pretty ugly bruising. If I sit still the pain is tolerable but any movement or exertion that involves anything from my neck to my hips is quite painful. I just have to be patient and take it one day at a time.
So there it is. I think I covered everything. As always, feel free to send me questions, if you have any.
I'm going to try to sleep now.
Love to all!