On December 13, 2013 at 5:30 am I arrived to St Elizabeths Hospital. I was registered and at 6 am I was called into ambulatory surgery to prep for my surgery. I was given a purple thick paper like gown and tan hospital socks. At 6:30 am I was given an I.V. and antiobiotics beforehand. My vitals were checked on both arms and temp was taken. My left arm was 127/87 and right arm 133/93. Temperature 98.7 O2 at 99%. I met with the anesthesiologist around 7 am where she asked me a series of questions. Her name is Dr Blue and she was fantastic. She promised to take good care of me and everything would be fine. At 7:30 the surgeon came in and greeted me. His name is Dr. Orlando and he is very professional and compassionate about his work and his patients. He asked me to sit straight up, chin down and facing forward. He started measuring and then drew lines mirrored and identical to the other side. That took about 10 minutes. Afterwards he got up from his chair and patted my back and said, "You're gonna look good kiddo"! and said we can get her in the room to his assisting nurse. They unlocked the stretcher and started pushing me into the hallway. It was cool and light in the hallway. The nurse pulled a surgical net over my hair and pushed me into the OR. I heard machines beeping and clanking and the staff members in the room talking. We were all joking around for a bit. They asked me to scoot from the stretcher to the surgery table and as soon as I got onto the table Dr Blue was positioning my head on a rotating head rest and said to relax she was going to take excellent care of me. Another nurse, a man i remembered his name Juan was talking to me about different names. The nurse that rolled me into the OR kept calling me Monica and I said Monique and she goes Oops Sorry Juan this is Monique I kept calling her Monica this whole time, so jokingly I said Hi John! So thats where the different names comes in. I remember them putting wraps on my legs and my legs inclining and thats it. I woke up and heard a lot of commotion. And The nurse calming me down saying, "Monique, you did great! You are waking up from your surgery." I remember mumbling and crying saying, "I'm sorry, I'm gonna throw up." They said you are okay hun, try to breathe. I remmber throwing up A LOT and the nurse said, "She sure did have to vomit" Things got blurry. I remember them saying, "CODE RED RECOVERY 1, EKG STAT, BLOOD TEST STAT, MASS, so much blood while they were holding my hand, any history of heart disease, arrhythmia"? and I started to whimper and asked for my kids. "She's 85/50, skipping beats and fluttering." I remember them turning me and pressing things against my body. I heard a nurse ask, "Monique can you tell me what your pain level is at" I said, "8"! I heard them say we gave her 4 different kinds of pain meds and shes been with us since 11 and has been sleeping and unresponsive since. Its 2 now. They said, "Give her such and such amount magnesium and potassium! Her levels are dangerously low!" I remember fading out and when I woke up they asked where my pain level was at. I said "An 8 still." The nurse was holding my hand and said, "You did great Monique"! I felt extremely nauseated and I think that was the biggest obstacle for me to overcome. My throat was so sore and it felt like I had flem in the back of my throat that would not go away. Come to find out. My uvula was like an inch long and they said it was normal for it to be that way because I just had a tube in my airway for the past 3 hours. They said I was okay to go to Recovery 2 and pushed me into that section. I was awake but a little tired still. I had like 15 missed calls and 40 text messages. The nurses said that I had been receiving calls all day and have been quite the subject. They asked where my pain was at again. I said, "Like a 7" They insisted I rest again and gave me ginger ale. I drank that. When I was done I told them I had to go to the bathroom really bad. Getting up was such a painful experience but it was manageable. It felt like my incisions were going to tear and that my chest was burning and engorged. I went to the bathroom no problem and got up alone to wash my hands and walked out of the bathroom. The nurse ran over and said, "Okay, just wait for us next time okay? You did great though. Wow look at you." She eased me onto the stretcher and gave me THE MOST wonderful tasting toast and water I have ever tasted. It was so buttery and yummy and because of my lack of saliva and sore throat impossible to break down and swallow. LOL The nurses were ALLLLLL SOOO amazing. It was seriously THE BEST care I have ever received. One of the nurses approached me and said, " You had angels watching over you. We rarely see this situation with your surgery." I asked "What happened"? She said, "Do you have history of heart disease"? I said, "NONE"! She said, "Well, after your tube came out and you started waking up from anestesia you were crying and saying sorry and vomitted bile all over one of the nurses. Your heart rate started slowing down and BP was 85/50, they called a code and got some testing done. Your heart started fluttering and skipping beats due to potassium and magnesium deficiency. They inserted this IV on your hand and punctured a vein trying to get it in so fast. But whats important is that you are alive and awake now." I think I fell asleep after that LOL to be honest because I don't remember too much detail. I was given a pain pill along with my food to see if I could stomach and hold it down. It was 4:30 pm and they told me I could go home. I had to pee again and I was so annoyed at having to feel the pull, presure and pain again but knew it was all apart of my experience. I remember feeling INSTANTLY lighter as I regained conciousness. Every bump we hit on the way home wasuncomfortable. I kept nodding off. I had to get my script filled. When I got home, my aunt reheated me some homemade soup and crackers my grandmother had made to eat since it had been almost 24 hours I went without eating. It was delicious. I was really emotional and went to bed. Day 2 waking up was painful getting out of bed, but manageable. I slept most of the night. It was hard to sleep during the day. Mind you I am a single mom of 2 very active toddlers so I felt completely off schedule and out of tune with the house quiet and nothing to do. I got up and made food. Drank lots of water, took my antibiotics and watched tv, eventually falling asleep again. I took the outter bandages off and kept the main ones on. I gave myself a sponge bath that night with the help of my friend. Day 3 on a Sunday i felt a lot of relief but still a ton of pressure on my breast and chest still. It was a little easier to move around and get up but still a bit painful. My kids came back and it felt good to have them home. They were very good about being careful around mamas boo boo's. Monday Day 4, I took a shower and my steri strips came off. I called my Dr's office and they said that was fine, to let it air dry and put Neosporin on the area.I returned to work around 11:30 am and honestly became very drowsy very fast. After work I went to Urgent Care to have them replace the steri strips. They said it looked like everything was healing fine. I went home after picking up my kids and fell asleep. Tuesday I woke up in considerable amount of pain. It took me an hour to get ready. I was so tired but still went to work. My incisions started bleeding again. I am going to the Dr office at 2:30 today and will update you on what happens. Updated on 18 Dec 2013: I have added some photos for your viewing and hope that this answers any inquiries or concerns you have regarding breast reduction. Updated on 23 Dec 2013: So I ended up over extending and tearing two of my stitches open. I went to Urgent Care and they restitched me and put on a steristrip. I called my Dr office since it was after hours and they got me in right away. I am very hard headed but learned my lesson on being super mom. When I went in the nurse said everything looked like it was healing good except for that one part and I explained that i was helping my baby get on my bed and she almost fell off so I went to grab for her. The nurse took me out for 2 more days and to return to work on Friday the 20th with no restrictions. Day 6- The pain is manageable. Though sleeping at night is the hardest since I am a belly snoozer and side straddler, lol. I have relief in my back and shoulders but find myself getting uncomfortable from sleeping in the same position. Upright and on my back. I take Motrin 800mg to help with the pain at night to help me sleep better. Resting on my back and then standing up I can feel the pressure in my breasts. Thats the adjusting part I have to get use to. I am catching a bit of a cold. My kids are coughing and sneezing. I feel afraid hahaha. But I am prepared by hydrating and vitamins and getting rest. Day 7- YYAAYYYYYY!!!!! hAPPY oNE wEEK!! I made it!.Getting out of bed has been so much easier each day. I am still very exhausted though. I feel the urge to have nap every few hours. If I don't I get very light headed and nauseated...this may be a mix of the slight cold I have as well. Day 8- I decided to go shopping today. Bad idea. I over did myself again and ended up collapsing outside of Target. It all happened so fast. I got light headed and Bang I was on my knees. My friend helped me up and I continued walking to my car, but this is serious. No more pushing. I am drinking plenty of water and trying to beat the cold that is going around. I feel better already. Just a little congested, trying not to plug my membranes because the light headedness is already a given from recovering. Day 9- I stayed inside and watched movies all day with my kids and made a light meal. I had more energy but still didnt want to push myself. So i remained seated and relaxed. Breast are still tender and significant bruising. Day 10- It's Monday I am at work. A little tired and uncomfy but I just took a Tylenol so hopefully that helps out a bit. During work I rest by sitting back and elevating my feet and answer every other phone call that comes in. Will update with photos as soon as I get home.
