September 19: Surgery Recovery or Lack There Of :-)

Surgery went very well and I’m feeling great! Probably feeling too well as I haven’t been taking my recovery as relaxed as I should.

It was a crazy week, but I made it and surgery was easy peasy. We checked in nice and early 6:30 am at the hospital for an 8:30 am surgery. Emory was a great facility.

They got me back quickly; I had a nice room with walls… I had to un-dress and wipe down with special cleaning wipes (they made me do it last night too). Then get this, the nurse “cleaned my noise hair.” She swabbed it with a Q-Tip and iodine – I think – and something else in my nostril. So weird. But I have clean nose hairs. I also got some weird hot air blower for my gown to keep me warm. Drs all came to see me, everyone was great. The Anesthesiology resident ran my IV, and nailed it – She used some Novocaine before so it didn’t hurt much.

Dr. came back and we chatted – he explained why the expander is coming out and said it will all go great. He also said they’ll call me in a few days with the labs which HOPEFULLY come back negative. Fingers crossed.

The actual surgery was good, they put me all the way out, so I woke up and felt good/sore/tired. My chest is definitely sore, but they put in some kind of local anesthetic in my chest that will numb it for 72 hours, which is when the pain is the worst. Sometimes I can feel the pain but mostly ok. I’m also both amped up to get stuff done and at the same time tired. So my plan to nap today fell through.

They also gave me this cool bandage/wrap for my boob at the hospital. SOOOO here’s my sexy One-Boob/Drain photo shot! I should totally rock the one boob look. I also have my sexy drain for a week. So we’ll call me Uni-Boob? or we’ll have to come up with a better name. Suggestions welcome.

I will say, when I got home, I was super emotional (that’s pretty normal for me after going under) – I just want to cry though I’m not really sad. For the mastectomy when I saw the aftermath I cried in the hospital, but this time I didn’t look and the crying feeling has faded. I was going to watch a sad movie to get out my cry, but instead I did some organizing…

I also got so many lovely messages, Krispy Kreme Donuts and Magazines. I’m feeling so loved that I couldn’t do a sad movie!

So overall, they said it went well. We just need the cancer free call this week or next, then next Wednesday drains out,and in October Radiologist booked. So now back to medical leave for the next 1.5 wks.

Thanks for journey-ing with me!