What are your milestones?

I get to stop sleeping in my bra after six weeks which is Tuesday! I am sick of this thing! Do you feel like you are ready to go back to work, moggie?

i slept last night with out a bra, thats a mile stone.
i am also back to work on monday, i dont know how i am going to cope with that as its a full on jobby.

I just took my cg/Spanx off! The past few days, after I have them on for several hours, I start to swell like you would not believe! It definitley is not helping with the swelling which is what I thought was the point of wearing them. It seems to make it worse instead. I know what you mean though because I feel unsupported and I'm not liking this feeling.

How far do you have to drive? I drove within the first week but it wasn't very far.

well i slept better, but i felt un protected if that makes any sense. i couldnt wait to get it back on this morning though once it was dried.

You know, my ps hasn't mentioned anything at all to me about scar treatment. When I asked about scarring before my surgery, he said the tape was the best thing for the scar. It was changed once early on, but now I am to let the current tape come off on it's own. It is just now beginning to come loose in spots. I intent to call them once it's off to make sure I didn't misunderstand something. I will be 4 weeks tomorrow and I haven't seen my scar yet. It makes me a little nervous. How did you sleep without the binder? Better or worse? It's a big milestone to get to the grocery store!

Morning Snidera.
How you feeling today.
i am 2 weeks PO today.
My milestones well i slept last night without my binder on ( its only cause it needed washing)
And i also went to the supermarket on saturday ( my sister drove me)
Can i ask you when are you going to start the scar treatment?

Hi mrbmom. I think my biggest milestone in the last week was that I managed to string more good days together than bad. It is such an up and down, forward and backward process! I realized that every other time that I have been sick or had surgery, I start to feel better and there is a steady progression to wellness. It was really confusing and frustrating to me that this is not like that at all. Every day is different. For the first 3 weeks, I seemed to have one bad day for every good day. I am happy to say, now that I am in almost the 4th week, the good days out number the bad. I seem to be more sore, but I am sure that is due to the healing process and the fact that I feel better, so I do more, and feel it more in my muscles. It is so easy to overdo it, as you say. I went for a walk on the beach today. That was a big deal and I hope I can continue to do that. It is so good for my brain! Just rest up and know that you will feel better and eventually, you won't be so wiped out after doing things. Thanks for checking in on me! Feel better. Good days are around the corner!

Snidera62 I was wondering how you are feeling now? Any more milestones? I felt great yesterday (day 10 po) but think I overdid it and am just absolutely beat today and sore.

Not for about 3 more weeks. Lots of PTO. I'm thinking if I start to lose my mind completely by then, I will cut it short. Hubby loves having me home, though. Duh.

So when are you going back to work?

Oh trust me, I plan on not lifting much at work. I work with a bunch of slackers while I bust my ass daily. I am going to turn myself into a slacker for a few weeks. There is no way I am going through all this pain and sitting around only to hurt myself or ruin the beautiful work my ps did. I already warned my boss that I would be 50% of my normal bad ass self, lol, and she is fine with that.

You are in the worst part right now. Everything gets better after this. I don't know how heavy the stuff is you have to carry but my ps told me nothing heavier than 10 pounds for six weeks. I hope you can stick to that too. You will get straighter. I'm getting better at that every day now.

Thank God you think so! That means a lot coming from someone who has a physical job like yourself. I hear about people going back to work after a week but they all have desk jobs.
I don't really expect to be standing straight at this point. I think I am just worried that I won't be able to ever again. It just seems so impossible at the moment.
There is zero sitting at my job. And even though it's highly illegal there are also zero breaks. I've worked there 6 years and normally I am fine with no sitting or breaks, but I can see how after this operation it would be nice to have 15 min of rest during the middle of my shift.

They told me at least 7 days in the recliner. I tried to sleep in bed at that point and was not able to get in and out of it. I think on the 10th night I slept in bed with 500 pillows. And I had to take Advil PM to make me sleep. I have told everybody that the first 4 to 7 days are the absolute worst! After you hit one week, you will start getting better pretty fast. The thing I didn't count on that I am finding out now, is that after that massive improvement, you kind of go backwards. You just get sore from the healing. I will be 3 weeks p.o. this Tuesday and I think I could work if I had to. Im a respiratory therapist and on my feet 12-15 hours, no lie. Pushing equiptment and ventilators I would probably ask for help because they are heavy but I'm feeling like, yeah...I could work at 3 weeks. If your boss gives you any options, try to sit down and rest a lot. Might not be possbile, I know. You are expecting a lot in my opinion, to stand up straight at 4 days. All that shit is pulled tight and you have to give it time. Like I said, you will see at the one week mark, things will be a lot better and you will be a little straighter but for short periods of time that eventually get longer. I now the damn chair kills your back. I heard someone say they used a heating pad, but some ps's don't want you to use heat or cold so you might want to check first. Hope that helps a little but I don't think you have to stress about working at the 3 week point.

I didn't realize that this is a step by step process.I mean, to this extent, anyway. Getting throught the surgery, getting home. Of course losing the drain and pain pump is a HUGE deal. Getting in bed instead of the recliner. Last night I slept on my side for about an hour before I woke up with a dead arm. Feeling like taking a shower or getting sort of dressed, which to me at this point means clothes that work for sleeping as well as walking to the mailbox or going to get groceries. Standing up striaight which I haven't mastered yet. I am disappointed that last week I felt better than I did this week. I don't feel like leaving my house and last week, I did a little window shopping and a little grocery shopping. The last few nights I've gone back on pain meds to sleep because I feel like my insides are coming back together and I can feel it. I am 19 days post op. I'm irritated with myself. Sigh.

well i am only a few days post op but I've already had a couple of milestones. The first was making it up and down the stairs without falling over. The second was having a bm! I am so looking forward to maybe getting this pain pump and the drains removed next Thursday. I think that will be extremely liberating. I anticipate leaving the house will be one.