Giving the Girls a Lift!

After breastfeeding two kids my girls got a well deserved lift! Dr. Chevalier was so great. He has great bedside manner and I felt very comfortable with him. It’s only one day since my surgery but the pain hasn’t been to bad. I do have a lot of swelling as expected but so far I’m happy with the results.

So far I am healing nicely. I had the worst reaction to neosporin and so I can only use petroleum jelly. I tried polysporin and I didn’t react well to that either. However, that’s the worst of it. The only thing I’ve taken for pain is Tylenol so the pain really isn’t that bad. I’ve Ben able to sower everyday and recovery has been great.

So yesterday evening while showering I heard a “pop” near my right breast. I was like oh shoot did I pop my stitches! Nope everything looked great. Ten and this excruciating pain and I didn’t know why. I called my surgeon and was instructed to apply cold compresses and make sure my surgical bra was on tight in case it was a hematoma. I did both. About 30 minutes later my right breast was getting hard and swollen and tight. I called him back and he said continue to apply cold compresses. That the body will normally re-absorb the fluid. I had an appointment to see him the next day and he advised me to come in earlier that morning. Another 30 min and it was getting worst! I could feel my underarm getting swollen. As an RN I knew something was wrong. There had to be internal bleeding and it was running out of places to go. My entire right chest was so tight as well. I spoke with my surgeon again, told him what I was experiencing and expressed my concern. He instructed me to go to the ED where he met me.
By the time I got to the ED I was in so much pain! I thought my breast was going to explode. Thank God for dilaudid because that was the only thing that helped calm me. Dr. C took one look at my breast and said we would have to go back to the OR. It turns out that I had a small arterial bleed with a hematoma. I lost about 400cc of blood in he process. He was able to do a wash out, placed a JP drain and stop the bleeding. There was no explanation as to why this happened. Did I do too much because I felt so good? Maybe. Resting is key after these surgery. I don’t think I rested enough. I am so glad that he was promptly able to address and fix my problem. I will have to keep the drain in until Monday and that’s fine with me.
This post isn’t meant to scare you because I don’t regret my procedure. I love my breasts and they still look great. This was just a wrench in my recovery and a reminder to rest and not to do too much!
Also you know your body and what you feel. So make sure you share your concerns with your doctor. Don’t brush it off and don’t allow them to either. You don’t have to be a medical professional to know when something is wrong with your body. Be annoying! You paid a lot of money and you deserve to know that you are not in danger.
I’m home now and everyone is making sure I rest though no reminder is needed. Lol. I’ll attach a pic so you can see how it looked with the swelling.......And it did get worst by the time I get to the ED.
I’m thankful that everything turned out well for me. The girls still look great but now I start the recovery process over in my right breast.