Days 25, 26, 27, 28, and 29... some boring stuff, plus 4-Week Check-Up

Well, I'm kinda getting into the point in the process where there aren't really "daily" healing details, so I might start posting weekly.  Maybe every few days.  I mean I don't know how interested people are in what I'm watching on tv ; )

Big News of the past 5 days:

Baby teething gel on the nipples to help with over-sensitivity:  This works, for like maybe 30 minutes... so, that was kind of a flop, and my nipples smell like cherry baby teething gel.

I slept on my side for the first time.

I still have the ridiculous crick in my neck, even though I went and had a chair massage.

Dealing with the infected tummy incision (more on that later):  I wore regular cotton panties under my compression garment, and attached a maxi-pad to the inside of the panties to soak up anything oozing/weeping from the incision.  This has worked really, really well.

4-Week Checkup:

So Doc looked at my tummy incision "infected" area and immediately told me that, in fact, it was no infection.  My body is such a healing badass boss that it's just trying really hard to "chew up" the different layers of sutures, and the protein byproducts of that process are what we see oozing/weeping.  The concern there, however, is that the external layer can't close up properly and the scar will be less-than-perfect if we let it continue to weep willy-nilly, so he put something like little butterfly bandages on the incision so it'll still be able to leak, but will not separate.

Should the scar be "too big", he can pretty simply fix it in a few months.  He likes my ooze-management technique of the maxi-pad on the undies, so we'll keep doing that while my body keeps eating up that dissolvable suture business.

Here are some steri-strips (wanna really gross yourself out?  Do a Google image search on "steri-strips"):

Evidently I can shower in them and everything.  Hooray!  I'm honestly just happy I didn't have some sort of flesh-eating haywire bacterial infection that would leave my stomach looking like a shark tried to eat me.

I mentioned I was running out of the ScarGuard, and since the breast business is healing up pretty well, Doc gave me some silicone thingees to use instead (the active ingredient in the ScarGuard is Silicone, which evidently has some magical powers where tissue healing is concerned.  It seems to help scars form flatter and smaller.  There was some talk of how Doc studied wound healing at some point).

So, there's an "anchor" shaped piece that goes on the scar on the underside of each breast, then a donut-looking piece that goes around each areola, with a little nipple hole.  Shape is like this:

This is a lot easier than painting that ScarGuard on allllll my incision areas with a teeny tiny brush!  I'm loving it.  Mine are clear silicone, and called "NewGel Silicone Gel Sheeting for Scar Management".  You can see them all here on NewMedical's site.  Doc's helper applied them to me in the office, and I totally haven't noticed them at all.  They're under my bra, and do not seem to have moved.  I'll get an abdomen one when the weeping/oozing stops and the tummy incision starts healing together.

Pain Level:

I'm not having much pain at all where the incisions are concerned.  On occasion, I have itching, but that's a good sign of healing so I try and either tolerate or use Benadryl spray if it's an actual topical itch.  I'm still workin' the Valium if I'll be in large crowds, because I am on super high alert and feel like everyone is a danger to my nipples (which are still on high alert) and belly.  I'm not in super crowds much, though, so not taking much of that either.  I've mostly been taking Motrin and Aleve to work on my stupid neck-crick-pain.

I'm going to attempt some desk work tomorrow morning, which I could have been doing for the past few days were it not for this effing neck pain.  Seriously.  I finally escape the neck and shoulder pain, only to strain a muscle and completely anger my neck and shoulders.  I don't really and truly have the range of motion I need to stretch these muscles the way I want to, so that's kind of annoying.  Oh well...  I'll take this over "flesh-eating haywire bacterial infection" any day of the week!

Energy/Strength Level:

I'm probably back to about 25% where energy level is concerned.  I can walk around the mall or the grocery store then go out to eat, and maybe one more stop then I am DONE.  My default walking speed is totally slower than normal.  I can squat down to the ground and pick stuff up now, but I prefer not to because of the panty/compression garment movement consequences, lol.

I can reach higher things than I could last week.  It's a slow and steady healing process, and I'm finding more patience.  There is absolutely some guilt where this process is concerned-- I'm not able to lift heavy things, do a lot of bending, tackle a lot of household things that I'm used to doing.  Everyone else has to work harder because I chose to do this... but again, here we are.  My family is being awesome about it.  I'm really trying to do what I can, not ask for unnecessary help, not use the surgery as an excuse to get out of doing things and just delegate.

Hugging Level:

I'm still not up for full-frontal hugs with anyone except Mr. Right.  I'm a little anxious about Thanksgiving because there will be family hugging and I don't know if everyone will remember that I had surgery-- or if some people even know.  It's not like I sent out announcements ; )  I know I'll get a lot of, "Oh you look so good!  Have you been dieting?" from the extended family relatives... I think I'll just tell them that while my eating habits have changed, I had 3.5 pounds of breast reduction and some other bonus work done.  I have a huge family, and we're huggers.  I am just going to have to figure out how to intercept and do some early hug detection.

Or I could just wear a shirt that says "4 weeks ago I had my nipples cut off and sewn back on.  Hug me gently", but really... who wants to talk about nipples at Thanksgiving?  Especially nipples to which you are related.

Snuggling Level (skip this if you don't want to hear the mushy part, or if you are a relative of mine):

As you may well imagine, since I just managed to sleep on my side and don't want to hug anyone too hard, there has yet to be any impressive snuggling.  Still plenty of hand-holding and kissing, but the laying-down-action is still at a screeching halt.  While we are sexy people, but the love is there no matter what.  The kindness and gentle touches and sweetness is there.  The compassionate and caring way he helps me with the ScarGuard, or puts lotion on my legs where it's tough for me to reach, or brings me a glass of milk and some Aleve when I wake up in neck-crick pain... that really means a lot to me.

We've gone through very difficult circumstances together before, this is nothing.  It's all physical, and one of these days (please, God who bonded us in marriage, let it be sooner rather than later) we'll get back to the physical lovin' again.  Don't think I haven't been scheming in my head to figure this business out.  You bet your bottom dollar my brain is working.  This is one of those times when the often-joked-about "sex swing" would totally come in handy.  Did I just go there?  Yep.