POSTED UNDER Breast Reduction Reviews
25 Years Old! NO Kids. 30K - Grand Rapids, MI
UPDATED FROM RainbowGirl91
27 days post
4 weeks laytah
$11,716
Hello again everyone!
As of tomorrow it will have been exactly 4 weeks since surgery. Over the course of these 4 weeks there have been a lot of unexpected healing quirks that my body is doing. I don't know if I've been overly descriptive of what I'm going through, but I figure that maybe ONE person might read this during their recovery and it'll reveal something they didn't realize before. Like the redness problem. I couldn't find anything that didn't suggest infection. In fact, it seems like any little thing could be infection so it's been nerve-wracking.
The redness was the first curve ball. For the most part that's all gone. Then there was the ungodly itchiness. After that it was just figuring out when I was able to go back to work (spoiler: not as quickly as I thought I could). The past week has has been eventful in new ways. A few days ago I discovered that my nipples were pushing out some of the dissolvable stitches in the form of small pockets of yellowish liquid. I'm not going to mince words, because I was just so grossed out by it, but the liquid was very reminiscent of popping a pimple. Except there wasn't a 'head' or anything. Just a hole that I could squeeze that grossness out of. After dealing with that I started soaping everything up with anti bacterial soap, rinsed, dried, applied neosporin, and then carefully bandaged everything up.
You'll see that I included a few pictures of rightie, and that's from today. Nipple has two teeny holes with a sort of yellow clot that I'm just leaving alone. I've been putting neosporin on that, too, and it's smaller than a few days ago so I think it's just doing its own thing, which is fine by me. However, I have been feeling some irritation at the bottom of my 'anchors', but especially on rightie. So yesterday I removed the steri strips on it because I feel like part of my problem is that every kind of goo that came out of those incisions since surgery has been trapped under those strips. By the time I removed these in particular they were covered in a slimy layer of old blood and yellowish-green healing goo (I think it's healing goo, anyways). They were just gross and scary to look at. As I was saying though, under the strips at the bottom of the anchor were some red, irritated incisions. A few spots sting. I cleaned them up last night and put neosporin on it and covered it up with fresh gauze with lots of tape to keep tension in that area. I'm hoping that they'll be able to breathe a little better and the redness and irritation will go away. I'm sure my left side is the same, but it's not feeling as bad as rightie did so I'm waiting on doing anything on that side. This entire time I've been told by a lot of other girls to leave the steri strips on, but they were just so gross and I don't see how that wouldn't just trap bacteria.
I know compared to some I'm definitely not anywhere near having a difficult healing process, but I have to admit I'm a little jealous of the girls that had their steri strips and everything off after 2 weeks and looked like they were 2 months in the healing process instead. I'm really ready to just have everything tightly sealed, no gooey crap, and especially NO MEDICAL TAPE. That stuff is the most annoying and difficult to ignore part of this.
Well, I think that's about it for this update. Until next time!
As of tomorrow it will have been exactly 4 weeks since surgery. Over the course of these 4 weeks there have been a lot of unexpected healing quirks that my body is doing. I don't know if I've been overly descriptive of what I'm going through, but I figure that maybe ONE person might read this during their recovery and it'll reveal something they didn't realize before. Like the redness problem. I couldn't find anything that didn't suggest infection. In fact, it seems like any little thing could be infection so it's been nerve-wracking.
The redness was the first curve ball. For the most part that's all gone. Then there was the ungodly itchiness. After that it was just figuring out when I was able to go back to work (spoiler: not as quickly as I thought I could). The past week has has been eventful in new ways. A few days ago I discovered that my nipples were pushing out some of the dissolvable stitches in the form of small pockets of yellowish liquid. I'm not going to mince words, because I was just so grossed out by it, but the liquid was very reminiscent of popping a pimple. Except there wasn't a 'head' or anything. Just a hole that I could squeeze that grossness out of. After dealing with that I started soaping everything up with anti bacterial soap, rinsed, dried, applied neosporin, and then carefully bandaged everything up.
You'll see that I included a few pictures of rightie, and that's from today. Nipple has two teeny holes with a sort of yellow clot that I'm just leaving alone. I've been putting neosporin on that, too, and it's smaller than a few days ago so I think it's just doing its own thing, which is fine by me. However, I have been feeling some irritation at the bottom of my 'anchors', but especially on rightie. So yesterday I removed the steri strips on it because I feel like part of my problem is that every kind of goo that came out of those incisions since surgery has been trapped under those strips. By the time I removed these in particular they were covered in a slimy layer of old blood and yellowish-green healing goo (I think it's healing goo, anyways). They were just gross and scary to look at. As I was saying though, under the strips at the bottom of the anchor were some red, irritated incisions. A few spots sting. I cleaned them up last night and put neosporin on it and covered it up with fresh gauze with lots of tape to keep tension in that area. I'm hoping that they'll be able to breathe a little better and the redness and irritation will go away. I'm sure my left side is the same, but it's not feeling as bad as rightie did so I'm waiting on doing anything on that side. This entire time I've been told by a lot of other girls to leave the steri strips on, but they were just so gross and I don't see how that wouldn't just trap bacteria.
I know compared to some I'm definitely not anywhere near having a difficult healing process, but I have to admit I'm a little jealous of the girls that had their steri strips and everything off after 2 weeks and looked like they were 2 months in the healing process instead. I'm really ready to just have everything tightly sealed, no gooey crap, and especially NO MEDICAL TAPE. That stuff is the most annoying and difficult to ignore part of this.
Well, I think that's about it for this update. Until next time!
RainbowGirl91's provider
Replies (1)
UPDATED FROM RainbowGirl91
18 days post
18 dayz laytah
I hath returneth.
Had a bit of a scare the last 10 days. Up until about 3-4 days ago I was terrified that I was infected. You'll see in the pics here that I got pretty red. It was warm to the touch, I was internally itching like crazy, too. It was at least as itchy as chicken pox but on the inside of my boobs. I was taking antihistamines every 12 hours when I'd be allowed to take another one. I put cold packs on them to try to dull the itch, but since I'm also numb in some spots I had to be careful. It was so itchy that I had a hard time falling asleep. I thought that I HAD to be infected, or that I was allergic to the tape I was using to keep gauze on my incisions. Even though I was cleared to let my steri strips fall off and everything I'm still bandaging myself and trying really hard to keep myself aired out. That's been difficult since I live in Michigan which, despite being a northern state, has pretty rotten summers which are humid and have been about 85-95 degrees everyday. And I live in a house with no AC except for my bedroom. I ended up getting so nervous about the tape that I took everything off at one point, removed any loose steri strips/snipping what was curling up, and took a shower where I gingerly soaped up the incisions that were exposed with antibacterial soap. I wanted to eliminate anything that could have been causing a possible itch. I also had tape residue on my skin and it all was just driving me NUTS I tell you!
I had also attempted to come back to work after about 10 days. I felt okay at home. I wasn't taking painkillers anymore and I felt like 2 weeks was excessive. It must certainly isn't, haha. I have a desk job that's very laid back and I discovered that there is a significant difference between sitting reclined in an armchair and adjusting your position up to 90 degrees at a desk. My incisions were NOT happy. Gravity stared pulling down on them and my nips started throbbing after about 5 hours and I had to tell my boss that I needed the rest of the week off as well. I used up the last of my PTO for the year and luckily my management is incredibly laid back and only wanted me to get better so they were fine with me going home. I still felt terrible, but I just haven't ever had a big surgery like this and I never realized how finicky the healing process is. I ended up taking two Norcos when I got home and I was hurting pretty bad until the next morning.
But like I said, since Friday the redness has decreased significantly! I had decided if it didn't start improving by then that I would then make an appointment. Now it's almost all gone. I think it might be possible that I was allergic to the glue on the incisions if that's what he used in tandem with the strips. It's the one thing I could find in my research that was really close to what I was experiencing.
On a much lighter note I had to go shopping in a few places today. I had to walk thrive both the Home Depot and Menard and after that we went to Meijer for groceried. By that point my leftie wad feeling a disturbing pulling sensation so I elected to use the motorized 'amigo' carts. I felt pretty embarrassed actually since I don't look like I'm 'disabled' in any way and I felt like I was being judged. People kept getting in my way even when I was obviously waiting to get through to somewhere and it was a bit frustrating.
But that's the extent of the updates for now. I'm officially back at work. Also, you can actually see visibly a little that my swelling is going down. I feel like my boobs are already starting to 'drop' and they're on their way to being rounder. They look kinda big in my pictures but they're totally not. I feel so flat. It's amazing! I can't wait until I can exercise and get myself back to a healthier size. I'm hoping it'll reduce me further at that point.
TTFN!
Had a bit of a scare the last 10 days. Up until about 3-4 days ago I was terrified that I was infected. You'll see in the pics here that I got pretty red. It was warm to the touch, I was internally itching like crazy, too. It was at least as itchy as chicken pox but on the inside of my boobs. I was taking antihistamines every 12 hours when I'd be allowed to take another one. I put cold packs on them to try to dull the itch, but since I'm also numb in some spots I had to be careful. It was so itchy that I had a hard time falling asleep. I thought that I HAD to be infected, or that I was allergic to the tape I was using to keep gauze on my incisions. Even though I was cleared to let my steri strips fall off and everything I'm still bandaging myself and trying really hard to keep myself aired out. That's been difficult since I live in Michigan which, despite being a northern state, has pretty rotten summers which are humid and have been about 85-95 degrees everyday. And I live in a house with no AC except for my bedroom. I ended up getting so nervous about the tape that I took everything off at one point, removed any loose steri strips/snipping what was curling up, and took a shower where I gingerly soaped up the incisions that were exposed with antibacterial soap. I wanted to eliminate anything that could have been causing a possible itch. I also had tape residue on my skin and it all was just driving me NUTS I tell you!
I had also attempted to come back to work after about 10 days. I felt okay at home. I wasn't taking painkillers anymore and I felt like 2 weeks was excessive. It must certainly isn't, haha. I have a desk job that's very laid back and I discovered that there is a significant difference between sitting reclined in an armchair and adjusting your position up to 90 degrees at a desk. My incisions were NOT happy. Gravity stared pulling down on them and my nips started throbbing after about 5 hours and I had to tell my boss that I needed the rest of the week off as well. I used up the last of my PTO for the year and luckily my management is incredibly laid back and only wanted me to get better so they were fine with me going home. I still felt terrible, but I just haven't ever had a big surgery like this and I never realized how finicky the healing process is. I ended up taking two Norcos when I got home and I was hurting pretty bad until the next morning.
But like I said, since Friday the redness has decreased significantly! I had decided if it didn't start improving by then that I would then make an appointment. Now it's almost all gone. I think it might be possible that I was allergic to the glue on the incisions if that's what he used in tandem with the strips. It's the one thing I could find in my research that was really close to what I was experiencing.
On a much lighter note I had to go shopping in a few places today. I had to walk thrive both the Home Depot and Menard and after that we went to Meijer for groceried. By that point my leftie wad feeling a disturbing pulling sensation so I elected to use the motorized 'amigo' carts. I felt pretty embarrassed actually since I don't look like I'm 'disabled' in any way and I felt like I was being judged. People kept getting in my way even when I was obviously waiting to get through to somewhere and it was a bit frustrating.
But that's the extent of the updates for now. I'm officially back at work. Also, you can actually see visibly a little that my swelling is going down. I feel like my boobs are already starting to 'drop' and they're on their way to being rounder. They look kinda big in my pictures but they're totally not. I feel so flat. It's amazing! I can't wait until I can exercise and get myself back to a healthier size. I'm hoping it'll reduce me further at that point.
TTFN!
I am not a doctor, of course (pre-med graduate and EMT training at least xD), but what I'm seeing there doesn't seem to be too concerning! The redness seen in the photo anyways doesn't look like an infection, but you could always take your temperature just to be sure. Try feeling your breast away from the incision site, and if that area feels hot or swollen, especially combined with a fever - that's when you have to worry about an infection.
As for your other symptoms (sorry I'm a few days late)... I've been experiencing some of those myself, unfortunately. But fortunately for you I have some solutions!
According to the nurse who saw me, that discharge you're experiencing (including the odd color) is normal! Unless you have an infection of course, but it seems like you don't. It's kind of just a protective coating since that spot is irritated. As for the itchiness? Yeah, it's terrible. Try Benadryl, and using less tape where you can (my PS suggested that I eliminate it entirely and just use my recovery bra to hold the gauze in place. My breasts have become very red from the tape and my itching as well. Aquaphor helps a little with that too (just don't put that on your incisions!) If it becomes unbearable, call your PS office up - they may recommend no steri strips for a while. ALSO, life saver here, try asking about or ordering silicone tape. I was fortunate enough to be able to go to a top-rated hospital here in the US, and they are a teaching hospital and research hospital, and therefore on top of new developments quickly. They have found that silicone tape works better for reducing scars than steri strips, and they have been much less irritating for my skin. While I will of course recommend that you talk to your PS about this change, you can buy a box on Amazon for like $15, and it's really been worth it for me. Time-wise you should be fine too (I'm 4 weeks today, and they gave me the silicone tape at the 3-week point).
Another huge life-saver for me has been Medihoney. This is a product for wound repair and healing, and works wonderfully (the reviews speak for itself as well). This is also on Amazon for $15 - I've already ordered my second tube! If you're started having some areas of your incisions open up at the t-junction or nipple area, this helps it heal and scar less. This is more for an "open" incision wound, so again, maybe check with your PS office, but if your T-junction is still giving you problems here later and opening up further than you'd like, I 100% recommend giving it a try. I have been terribly unlucky with my recovery, but at least I have learned a lot through this journey. Apparently I've had a complication series that was so rare the entire office of plastic surgeons had never even seen it before! I'll be writing up a long-winded post about it soon, because I figure that at least others can learn from this, even if it's already too late for me xD Best of luck to you, let me know how everything ends up healing!
And thank you for the tips! I'm going to post another update soon since today marks 6 weeks officially. I've had about 10 little discharge holes that I've been monitoring as I was slowly removing more of the steri strips. They've all been at the bottom of my nipple, down the line to the T-junction and next to the junction, so I think they're caused by the tension from the weight of my boobs. I had one yesterday that I cleared out and it's scary to see a hole going into your body. Not that I can complain in comparison O_O I'm happy to see you're starting to feel better. I'm looking forward to watching your recovery progress!