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*Treatment results may vary
Post Op - Day 22
Just posting a few updated pics. I saw my PS today and he gave me the okay to start scar treatment. He gave me two Mammopatch Gel Z's and one for my belly. I can't seem to get the mammopatch ones to stick even though my skin is completely dry so I'll try reapplying those another time. As you can see from the pics, my right breast has dropped more than my left.
Post Op - Day 9
Hello everyone. Today is day 9 and I just took my first shower of the new year since I had gotten my drains removed yesterday at 10:45 AM! It wasn't a very pleasant experience for me to be honest. I was able to wash my hair and the rest of my body just fine. I then began to "tease" the steri-strips off which felt extremely odd on my belly moreso than my breasts. The sight of the dried up blood and raw skin made me a bit woozy and this is coming from someone who watched multiple YouTube videos of both procedures being done prior to having them done herself. I sat on the edge of the bath tub but that did not help much. My ears started to ring and I began to have tunnel vision which is when I just decided to lie on the bath tub floor in a reclined position because I just couldn't get myself to sit anymore. I know they say this usually happens when the blood vessels relax after taking your compression garment off and getting into warm water, but I don't wear one and the water wasn't very warm at all. This is something that has been going on for quite some time way before I even had the surgery but it was worse this time around. I never bothered to ask my general practitioner about this for reasons unknown. Anyway, I finished gently washing the incisions because my mom was rudely rushing me out of the bathroom, I lotioned my arms and legs, and put some Bacitracin on the incisions. There is a bit of puckering on my tummy scar which I hope smoothens out as time passes. The thing I'm most concerned about is having dog ears. I'm not sure if it's from the swelling or it's just too early to tell but I'm hoping it is just swelling. I've attached a few updated pictures. There are still steri-strips on my right breast because I just couldn't get myself to pull them off anymore so I'm just going to wait until they've detached themselves a bit more. I definitely don't want to force anything. At some point within the next week I am hoping to go to Champion to find one of their comfy frontal closure sports bras since my PS said it was okay for me to start wearing one.
Post Op - Day 6
I am including some before and after pictures. I was unable to take a good picture right before the surgery due to being forgetful so I only have one quick snap that doesn't show the full damage. If anything, it makes me look like I just needed a panniculectomy but that was definitely not the case. The before pictures will be from my weight loss album on my phone.
Since I didn't post before the surgery, here is a quick rundown of how I felt between day one and six:
Day 1: I had awoken from anesthesia and I felt horrible (BTW: If you are afraid of getting the surgery because you feel like you'll wake up halfway through, there is absolutely nothing to worry about as I was in your shoes)! I was in a significant amount of pain. I felt VERY tight, my belly hurt, and I was groggy. My throat was also very sore due to the breathing tube they had inserted during the surgery. I could hardly speak and I found the doctors and nurses asking me "What?" multiple times. I already had a soft voice so the tube and tightness of my belly just made it worse. It was quite frustrating. I had sequential compression devices on my legs which felt amazing (the doctors told me most people don't like them which I was very surprised to hear) and I was hooked up to a machine that would administer Morphine every 12 minutes with a press of a button. At one point during the middle of the night, one of my doctors came in and gave me a dose of something stronger (started with a T) which put me right to sleep. I stayed overnight and was able to go home the next day at around noon. I went into surgery at 9 AM the day before and the surgery took nine hours. Crazy right!? Ah, my arms were also KILLING me since I was in a Jesus-on-the-cross position (sorry, don't mean to offend) so I needed a pillow under each arm to prop them up while I slept. As for going to the bathroom, I urinated about three times during the middle of the night. I had to call a nurse each time and my back hurt so badly when I walked to the bathroom about 10 feet away. They offered to let me use one of those potty seats for older people but it was out in the open and I just couldn't get myself to go. It took about seven minutes to finally pee when I had gotten to the bathroom and I could not hold a steady stream. It was frustrating and I felt like a nuisance making the nurses wait outside for me even though that's their job...
Day 2: I went home at noon. My PS had given me prescriptions for Oxycodone, Zofran for nausea, and an antibiotic to take for a week after the surgery. He did not send me home in any compression garments because he said I was young and would heal quickly. The car ride home was tolerable. I didn't experience much nausea, just a slight headache which dissipated when I kept my head down. I immediately got into my mom's bed (staying in hers for the time being since mine does not have a headboard to prop myself up with additional pillows) and tried to relax. My back was killing me. My mom put one of my cats in the room next door since I know how attached she is to me. My bedroom is in our basement and my cat lives down there with me while my other cat roams the whole house. Sadly, I am allergic to cats, moreso the one that roams the house, but I still love them to death and would not trade them for the world. I just don't want them rubbing up against me or the sutures because they will start to itch and I may sneeze, potentially popping a suture. I visit my furbaby next door every now and then but I only let her touch my right hand which I vigorously scrub with Hibiclens afterward. Anyway, day two was the worst. My left drain sight hurt a lot, my incision hurt a lot, and my back was crying. I took five Oxycodones that day.
Day 3-5: I started feeling a bit better on day three. I still had a lot of back pain and I would constantly wake up every three hours to adjust myself on the bed but nothing worked. I got up every now and then to use the bathroom and just get the blood circulating in my legs. Day 3 I only needed two Oxys and day 4 and 5 I was down to one. I had a lot of gas on days two and three. I felt it rumbling around in my belly but it was difficult to release it. Still no bowel movement since the day before surgery. On day five I got my left drain removed since it drained less than 25 ccs in a 24 hour period on day four.
Day 6: Today, 1/5/2015 I feel pretty good. I can get up on my own, stand for a longer period of time and can even sleep on my left side if I choose but it felt strange when I attempted it so I'm holding off on doing that. Not having a bowel movement is starting to take a toll on me. I feel the pressure building up and I haven't been keeping up with taking Colace which is my fault so I have resorted to Milk of Magnesia. Not the best flavor but hopefully it'll help me feel better. I weighed myself which isn't advised, I know, but I am three pounds down from my pre surgery weight of 143. I can't wait until the swelling goes down and I get to start working out again. Five more weeks!
Mini update as of 11:42 AM: MoM worked and I am taking a BM as I am writing this (sorry for TMI, lol). It's a bit difficult... I'm trying not to push too much.
Anyway, sorry for the extensive rundown but I really wanted to be thorough so you guys know what I'm going through to show you that this procedure's recovery really isn't that bad. :)
Since I didn't post before the surgery, here is a quick rundown of how I felt between day one and six:
Day 1: I had awoken from anesthesia and I felt horrible (BTW: If you are afraid of getting the surgery because you feel like you'll wake up halfway through, there is absolutely nothing to worry about as I was in your shoes)! I was in a significant amount of pain. I felt VERY tight, my belly hurt, and I was groggy. My throat was also very sore due to the breathing tube they had inserted during the surgery. I could hardly speak and I found the doctors and nurses asking me "What?" multiple times. I already had a soft voice so the tube and tightness of my belly just made it worse. It was quite frustrating. I had sequential compression devices on my legs which felt amazing (the doctors told me most people don't like them which I was very surprised to hear) and I was hooked up to a machine that would administer Morphine every 12 minutes with a press of a button. At one point during the middle of the night, one of my doctors came in and gave me a dose of something stronger (started with a T) which put me right to sleep. I stayed overnight and was able to go home the next day at around noon. I went into surgery at 9 AM the day before and the surgery took nine hours. Crazy right!? Ah, my arms were also KILLING me since I was in a Jesus-on-the-cross position (sorry, don't mean to offend) so I needed a pillow under each arm to prop them up while I slept. As for going to the bathroom, I urinated about three times during the middle of the night. I had to call a nurse each time and my back hurt so badly when I walked to the bathroom about 10 feet away. They offered to let me use one of those potty seats for older people but it was out in the open and I just couldn't get myself to go. It took about seven minutes to finally pee when I had gotten to the bathroom and I could not hold a steady stream. It was frustrating and I felt like a nuisance making the nurses wait outside for me even though that's their job...
Day 2: I went home at noon. My PS had given me prescriptions for Oxycodone, Zofran for nausea, and an antibiotic to take for a week after the surgery. He did not send me home in any compression garments because he said I was young and would heal quickly. The car ride home was tolerable. I didn't experience much nausea, just a slight headache which dissipated when I kept my head down. I immediately got into my mom's bed (staying in hers for the time being since mine does not have a headboard to prop myself up with additional pillows) and tried to relax. My back was killing me. My mom put one of my cats in the room next door since I know how attached she is to me. My bedroom is in our basement and my cat lives down there with me while my other cat roams the whole house. Sadly, I am allergic to cats, moreso the one that roams the house, but I still love them to death and would not trade them for the world. I just don't want them rubbing up against me or the sutures because they will start to itch and I may sneeze, potentially popping a suture. I visit my furbaby next door every now and then but I only let her touch my right hand which I vigorously scrub with Hibiclens afterward. Anyway, day two was the worst. My left drain sight hurt a lot, my incision hurt a lot, and my back was crying. I took five Oxycodones that day.
Day 3-5: I started feeling a bit better on day three. I still had a lot of back pain and I would constantly wake up every three hours to adjust myself on the bed but nothing worked. I got up every now and then to use the bathroom and just get the blood circulating in my legs. Day 3 I only needed two Oxys and day 4 and 5 I was down to one. I had a lot of gas on days two and three. I felt it rumbling around in my belly but it was difficult to release it. Still no bowel movement since the day before surgery. On day five I got my left drain removed since it drained less than 25 ccs in a 24 hour period on day four.
Day 6: Today, 1/5/2015 I feel pretty good. I can get up on my own, stand for a longer period of time and can even sleep on my left side if I choose but it felt strange when I attempted it so I'm holding off on doing that. Not having a bowel movement is starting to take a toll on me. I feel the pressure building up and I haven't been keeping up with taking Colace which is my fault so I have resorted to Milk of Magnesia. Not the best flavor but hopefully it'll help me feel better. I weighed myself which isn't advised, I know, but I am three pounds down from my pre surgery weight of 143. I can't wait until the swelling goes down and I get to start working out again. Five more weeks!
Mini update as of 11:42 AM: MoM worked and I am taking a BM as I am writing this (sorry for TMI, lol). It's a bit difficult... I'm trying not to push too much.
Anyway, sorry for the extensive rundown but I really wanted to be thorough so you guys know what I'm going through to show you that this procedure's recovery really isn't that bad. :)
Provider Review
Dr. Brady is nothing but the best! He put me at ease before the surgery and answered any and all questions I had for him. He worked with me to get the body I so badly wanted and deserved after all of the weight I had lost. He is truly passionate about what he does and he always has your best interest in mind. His staff were equally amazing.