I spent nearly a week at my Uncle’s in Vancouver starting the process of recovery from my surgery. I had lots of people come and visit which was awesome. I slept a lot. I slowly started getting a bit more mobile and able to do a few more things.
You don’t realize how much energy it requires to do most daily tasks are until you have limited mobility. Then everything seems to be a struggle. Getting dressed required another set of hands. Sitting up required a hand pushing me on my back. Everything had to be handed to me, as opposed to me reaching for it.
Both Cayley and my Dad were, and continue to be, awesome. I had lots of help, but boy was it frustrating.
Dealing with a drain is never fun either. It gets in the way, you have to empty it at least once a day, and you fear that you will accidentally rip it out.
Things also hurt a lot at times. I won’t try and be tough and tell you it wasn’t that bad – it was. There were times that this screaming pain ripped across my left chest, almost in the area of where my nipple should be to my back, and there was nothing I could do about it. I’d wince, try to remember to breath, and just wait until the pain subsided. It was never for a long period of time, but when it came, holy it hurt.
I went in to see my PSurg on Monday so she could take off my bandages and remove my drain. My friend came with me and Cayley wouldn’t leave the room – no matter how much I said I didn’t want him to see, he insisted that he’d get to see anyways – plus “I’m the one who is taking care of you so I have to know what to do.” Even when he doesn’t do what I want, I still can’t help but immensely love this man.
The PSurg removed my bandage that went across my chest, down my sides and across my belly. I thought it might pull a little, but I was not expecting the serious pain that came with it. She said they had to come off and there was no easy way to do it, but wowzers! Bits of my skin came off with the bandage, but it needed to be on tightly so I guess that’s sometimes the outcome.
I didn’t get a tonne of time to take in what it looked like, because next up was removing the drain. She said this would hurt but I was thinking it would just be more uncomfortable. The thought of removing the drain gave me the heebie-jeebies, but I figured it wouldn’t be all that painful. Wrong. My friend held my hand and kept reminding me to breathe. Thankfully it was over fairly quickly – and to be honest, in comparison to hassle of the drain, that few minutes of pain was okay if it meant it could come out!
The PSurg said everything looked great and that I could go home and to come back in two weeks to get the stitches removed and get my first official ‘fill-up’ for the expander. (she had filled up the expander a bit during surgery, but not too much).
I’m home now and fairing alright. I’m in pain a lot, I have a really hard time sleeping, and moving my one arm is still a big challenge. It’s slowly getting better every day, but it’s still not at a point where I can do much on my own. I am not allowed to drive for a least another week – so I am basically homebound until someone can chauffer me around.
How does it look? Well weird. My right breast is lifted, but there are still lots of bandages around it. My left breast is gone, in its place a smooth lump with some bandages. To top it off, my eyes are tired so I look like a raccoon. And I still have no eyebrows/eyelashes and am bald, so that doesn’t help either. Of course Cayley tells me I am still beautiful to him – hmmm, maybe he needs some glasses for Christmas! Haha But I do think this will take some getting used to. To be honest, I’m not as shocked by it as I thought I would be – and I seem to be handling it okay.
But another big step mostly done and now just need to rest and make sure to do my physio exercises to get back my range of motion and then I should be good to go for the next step. Man this feels like it is taking forever.
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