Thanksgiving was great. Enough people told me I looked fantastic, and nobody went in for a giant squishy hug so I was able to navigate my way comfortably through the family crowd. I did notice that I was scared to even try getting on to the picnic-table bench, for a few reasons... a) it takes a certain amount of balance and torsion that I'm not sure I have, and b) the instability of the bench-- when it becomes like a see-saw if people get up/down at the wrong times-- influenced my decision to settle in a metal folding chair at a card table. Our family is large, and we always have "extras"so it's not your "traditional" everyone-sits-at-the-dining-table kind of thing. We're paper plate, backyard party kinda folk.
The dear Aunt who came to stay with me the weekend after surgery... she's the one who hosted Thanksgiving. I stripped down and showed her my healing progress and she was totally happy! I know it sounds odd, but she's had breast surgery before (because of cancer), and is very concerned with my healing process. I wanted her to see that it was going well. A great percentage of my breast incisions have healed completely shut. There are still 2 little spots where I have that whole "your body is chewing through the sutures" business going on, but they are pretty small. My tummy suture is still "chewing" at various spots through the middle... but the outer edges are healing up pretty smoothly.
I'm still so impressed at the breast incision healing. You have to get right up to the nipple and reallllly look to tell there was ever an incision. It is ridiculously cool that Doc could have taken me all apart and stitched me back together so beautifully.
My daughter and I decided we'd head to the mall at midnight when it opened for Black Friday, but it was just too crowded. So, we headed to Target. Also too crowded. Then we headed to the outlet mall, which had opened at 10:00, so we thought maybe it wouldn't be so bad. Correct! We outlet-malled for about an hour then called it quits. We were tired, even after all that evening-time resting, lol.
I'm finding that where I used to automatically head for the XL or XXL's, I am now in more of a L/XL zone. Gosh, I can't wait to be able to try on mew pants... although, I mean my thighs are still the same, so that will be an interesting study in fit, for sure.
Since I am still having the crazy nipple sensitivity, I've looked into finding some bras with more cup padding/thickness so it's not like "HELLO HEADLIGHTS!" when I'm walking around in a t-shirt.
This involved measuring myself for bra size. I'm hitting about 40" around the ribs, and 45" around the widest part of my bust, which places me in a 40DD. How did I feel when I first measured myself? I was disappointed. I wanted to immediately be "small". Then I was surprised... oh hey, so THIS is what a DD cup looks like on me? Well it's just really not nearly as bad and huge as I'd have imagined. I threw on a tank top with no bra, and I looked like a pretty hot hippie.
I found some no-wire "t-shirt" bras with a little more nipple coverage. One, I purchased at Target and the other, amazon.com.
The Coobie Seamless Underwire Bra has not arrived yet, but I successfully and painlessly wore the Beauty by Bali Women's T-shirt Wireless Bra, purchased at Target.
UPDATE: Coobie is by far more wonderful than Bali. Have not worn Bali again, have worn Coobie several times. Its inserts allow me to cover unruly nipples yet it's still soft and microfiber stretchy!
Coobie:
Bali:
I'll still be doing the happy dance when the swelling goes down and the boobs are smaller, don't get me wrong. Doc explained to me long before the surgery that it can take 6 months to a year before your body is really truly settled in and where it's going to be. In a later conversation, we talked about how his general rule for new surgeries or any real tweaking is that you've got to be at least a year out from the previous surgery. Makes good sense.
In my head's fairy tale, the transformation was more like emerging from my lovely chrysalis a perfectly healed butterfly. Clearly, my head fairy tale is delusional ; ) If you're considering plastic surgery, know that your recovery will nottttttt be instant. Great results will be worth waiting for. Patience.
Pain Level
My breasts are still sensitive. Like... maybe if you had been all-over sandpapered. Just that extra sensitive-pain that isn't really a "constant" pain, but I'm still preferring the car ride with the pillow barrier between my chest and the seat belt. I don't feel that I need medication for it, but when my nipples are being exceptionally sensitive, I'll pop a couple of Motrin. That seems to help.
When I wake in the morning and stand up, I am very aware and it's minimally painful to feel that "letdown" as my breasts adjust to gravity. Kind of like before the surgery, if I had PMS breast pain. That goes away pretty quickly.
If I press on them, at any given time, I can still feel sensitivity in the underneath-layers, even just a couple of inches below my collarbone. My "wing muscles" (pretend you're trying to fly... all those muscles) are sore when I try and use them.
My tummy incision area is not painful at all, nor is my relocated belly button. My abs are still sore, and when I get up from having been sitting a while, I still have that "pulling" sensation, like I need to stand up slowly or my stomach will rip in two. Now, I'm sure that isn't what would happen, but it just feels nicer to get up slowly! It isn't as hard to sit in booths at restaurants, unless they are really super squishy booths.
Energy/Strength Level
Energy level is absolutely improving. I don't need naps, I'm not sleeping all that much more than I did prior to surgery, I can do more than one or two activities a day. Me and Mr. Right took a little walk around the neighborhood with the dog, and I only really had to ask him to slow down once... and I didn't feel regretful of the exertion afterward. That was roughly 2 miles.
Strength and range of motion are slowly improving as well. Being able to reach higher and lower does result in some mild soreness of the new muscles used, but it isn't anything to really complain about. I don't depend constantly on the "grabber" tool, but I still keep it handy.
I can't carry super heavy stuff comfortably. I went through clothes and made a donation basket-- just a small laundry basket filled with folded clothes-- but I'm not feeling strong enough to carry something like that around the house. Folding laundry and hanging up clothes have been great activities for me, since the range of motion varies so much, and this activity is not time-dependent. We have the taller laundry hampers, which I cannot lift when full, so I devised a fabulous system of "looping a scarf through the handle" and dragging it to the laundry room like I'm a dog pulling a sled. Works like a charm! If you have small children, I'd think this would be a highly enjoyable task for them whether you've had surgery or not.
Things I can't do right now:
Bend over to the ground and get a puppy out of kennel (I reallllly wanted to get that puppy, too... I had to ask for help). Bend down and get things that are in our lower cabinets, but far back. Reach high stuff that is sort of heavy. Lift sort of heavy things out in front of my body (using forearm). Carry in lots of groceries... a 12-pack of canned Cokes is about my carrying-stuff weight limit.
I would still not be able to lift a child. Maybe a tiny newborn, but any child heavier than a 12-pack would be out of the question.
Hugging Level
Mr. Right is the only one I'll really hug boob-forward, since he's really good about letting me apply the pressure. Everyone else is still getting the side-shoulder-hug, or the "I'm gonna hug you from over here" hug that looks like middle school slow-dancing.
Snuggling Level (this section is off limits to relatives and people who don't want to hear about mushy stuff and/or my love life)
Well, there is still no spooning but we did make a good (and might I say relatively successful!) attempt at forking this week. That's right. Through the gusset/hole of the compression garment. On a scale of 1-10, 10 being the best ever, this was like probably a 5. It was niiiice, but I was totally self-conscious, a little scared I was going to hurt something and have to explain it to Doc, and my movement/active participation was super limited. I felt funny using certain muscles in the lower abdominal regions. If you're wondering how this was physically possible given my limited range of motion, well... keep wondering, because I've probably already said too much, LOL!!!
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