36DDD to Something More Manageable - New York, NY

Holy moly. Overnight I stretched my arms over my head without thinking about it. And everything was fine. I startled myself at first, then realized it wasn't as painful as I thought it should be. I waited a minute, then stretched again. It felt amazing.

Overall, I'm still not sleeping well. I'm so tired, but I just can't sleep well. After my hubby and kids left for the day I tried to go back to sleep. I fell asleep for 30 minutes. I tried to fall back asleep. Again, I slept for 30 minutes. I gave up on sleep. I decided to try to be a little more active today to see if this would tire me out more, help me sleep. I was also interested in seeing how much I could do.

I headed out to run some errands. Driving is getting easier. I went to Target. I walked around the store, more to walk. I browsed the bras. No front closure ones. I browsed the holiday stuff to make sure there wasn't anything I didn't know I needed. I walked around for an hour, more to stretch my legs and see how much I could do. Aside from walking slowly, I feel like I moved fairly normally. It was great. I spent $3. I came home, did some light house cleaning and wrapped some presents. Overall I was feeling pretty good, but as the evening wore on I broke down and took some ibuprofen - my first pain meds in 2 days. It definitely made me more comfortable, but I still get those zinging pains.

I did not sleep well last night. It's the first night I've gone without the narcotic and sedating anti nausea medications. I'm typically an exclusive tummy sleeper. I will occasionally have a zinging pain that would wake me up. I'm still having my hot flashes. All these things combined made for very poor sleep last night. I think that tonight I will sleep in the recliner.

Today was a completely med free day. I'm still sore, but I want to try going without, listen to my body about what I should and shouldn't be doing. The soreness today is predominantly the intermittent burning/zinging pain along incisions, primarily my nipples.

I was fairly active today, albeit light activity. We had breakfast with Santa, went grocery shopping - I was just along for the walk, the hubby did all the lifting and pushing the cart. I went home, rested a little bit, then made and decorated Christmas cookies with the kids. My husband went out for the afternoon, so it was just me and the kids. I tried to use cookie cutters, but using the rolling pin was beyond my abilities at this time. We had to get creative and free hand our cookies :-)

So tomorrow will be 2 weeks out. I guess I could see how someone in a desk job could go back at this point, I really think my body would need to heal more. I'm back to being nervous about my return to work in a week and a half, but then I have to remind myself how far I've come in the last week and a half!

I slept in bed successfully last night. I was really starting to miss it! I'm still sore, but as time goes on, each day brings an evolving pain. Today is zingers. Not the constant, mild zinging ache of yesterday. Today it's intermittent, stabbing pain. These zingers last a brief moment to a few seconds. It can happen anywhere along my incisions underneath my breasts and around my nipples. I took Tylenol and Motrin this morning, but nothing else. We did some purging in the kids' rooms this morning - getting rid of outgrown toys and clothes. I didn't want to push it so I took it easy the rest of the day. Overall, pretty good.

Something that I've been meaning to ask - has anyone had hot flashes since surgery? I'm so warm all the time, which is not my normal. This has been going on since right after surgery. I do not have any fevers or signs of infection. I wasn't sure if it was a hormonal thing or a consequence of sitting in my pillow nest all day long. Anyone else?