Here Goes Something - Seattle, WA

I did it! It was definitely a stressful night the night before and I didn't really sleep. I left my house at 4:30 and checked into the hospital at about 5:45. Even though I had tossed and turned all night I felt surprisingly calm once I was on my way. The Pre-op team was pretty great, each one asked me my name and birthdate and the surgery that was being performed for my safety every time they introduced themselves. They all were very friendly and answered all of my questions except the anesthesiologist who torqued on my IV and was kind of condescending about it when I told her it hurt. That's when I first started having anxiety again. She may not have been very kind but it looks like she knows what she is doing since I did well coming out of the anesthesia. They started waking me up around 11am and I remember feeling conscious and alert by 11:30. My post op team was not as good. Everyone was rushing around and they accidentally got doubles of my written prescriptions, except one was signed and one wasn't and they accidentally disposed of the signed copy so I had to wait for a doctor from my team to come out of surgery to sign them. Then when I was in the recovery room with my family they started going over all the info I needed to know for when I went home and they had the wrong persons paperwork. Uhg. We got all the right paperwork and my prescriptions and left the hospital and once I was home I found out they had not included everything they were supposed to in my recovery supplies. My doctor has me using bilateral pambras under my surgical bra as opposed to a bunch of other dressing, it is great because it's all one piece and they are washable so you aren't going through a bunch of gauze and stuff and nothing shifts around. They were supposed to send me home with 2 in addition to the one I was wearing and they forgot. I was really upset. So they are sending them (my home is kind of a long way from the hospital) and luckily I had ordered some extras before surgery so that I would be okay if i couldn't do laundry for a while but those haven't arrived yet either, so hopefully one or the other does before I have to shower tomorrow. Otherwise they said I could use some kotex pads but I want the real thing. When you're not feeling well you don't really want to make do.

my pain level has mostly been good. I know that I have a harder time recovering from this kind of thing than most people so I didn't expect to feel as great as everyone else but I have been doing really well. Coming out of the anesthesia I think my pain was a 3, once the localized stuff started wearing off I started getting shooting pains but after some percocet and advil I felt pretty well. The ride home was a bit rough but thanks to this forum i knew to bring a pillow to help stabilize my chest when going over bumps and that really helped. When I got home I felt great for a couple of hours but then the nausea set in. i almost threw up but my mom rubbed my feet and it helped enough to keep me going until I could take more ant-nausea meds. i also listened to some meditation podcasts to stay calm. Then I did pretty well again until the even when I started to get really frustrated and down. I was having uncomfortable swelling around my wrists where they strapped my arms to the table (because your arms are out in a T during the surgery). No bruising or anything, fluids were just kind of building up there, so I called my surgeon and he assured me that it was okay (he's awesome). I was still having a lot of nausea and was having a hard time eating even though I was really hungry, the percocet didn't seem to be doing much for the pain, it hurt to pee from having a catheter in during surgery, I couldn't sleep because I couldn't get my neck in a good position. It just all felt overwhelming and disheartening.

Luckily it passed. I managed to get a little more food in me and my mom went out and got me a travel pillows, thanks to which I got 4 and a half hours of sleep. It may not sound like a lot but it made a world of difference.

This isn't exactly what I expected and since it has been less than 24 hours I am not ready to give a verdict on how I feel about the surgery but I can say that I am really happy to have the surgery part over with and be on the road to recovery. They ended up taking 3 pounds out of each breast, i haven't seen them yet and i don't know what size I am under all this but I already feel all that weight off my chest and it's good.

Oi, what a traumatic day. I wasn't feeling super well this morning so I put off my first shower til about noon. I had done a pretty good job sleeping at night but I have had an upset stomach and headache from the meds. The shower did not go well to say the least. There was very little pain or drainage when I took the bra off but as soon as I was in the shower everything started to go black. It felt like I was being swallowed up and I panicked. I have a seat in the shower but sitting down didn't help. I just kept seeing dark spots that were slowly filling up my entire vision. I really thought I was going to under and i have no idea how they would have gotten me out of the shower. I honestly barely remember how they did it with me half conscious. My mom helped me dry off and get the bra back on but it was a very close call. Once i was dressed again I felt completely drained, exhausted and cold. Unfortunately I have to take one every day so i have to figure out how to do better tomorrow an I am terrified it will happen again.

On the up side I am doing slightly better on the pain so I am cutting down on my meds for the sake of my tummy. The stomach medicine they gave me and the milk of magnesia are doing very little. Hope tomorrow goes better. At least I got to see what's going on under all that padding and surgical bra, didn't look half as bad as I expected, before I almost passed out that is.