From my breasts, 3 1/2 pounds of tissue was removed. From my abdominal area, 5 pounds of tissue was removed.
So, a little more than the weight of one of these from each breast:
And about this much from my abdominal area:
Everything went very well, I spent the night in the hospital. This was a great decision, simply because I was in so much pain and it was nice having a nurse there to tend to my needs (and give me IV drugs). Peeing was somewhat of a difficulty after I was put in the room. My bladder simply hadn't woken up-- when you're concentrating on every single muscle, it's hard to relax and go. I tried drinking a cup of water which was a huge mistake (I"d just had ice chips to this point), because I violently vomited the water 2 minutes after drinking it. Finally after a couple of tries, we turned on the bathtub water and something finally came out of me.
The most horrible, terrible parts of the hospital experience (where pain is concerned) were:
1. Waking up in recovery and having super, super sore arm muscles that I could barely move. For the breast surgery, I guess your arms are pretty much laid out sideways for a long time. Like when you fall asleep with your arm hanging off the couch and then you can't bend it once you wake up-- only 1000 times worse. I literally had to ask the recovery room nurses to stuff folded blankets under my elbows to get relief.
2. Getting up out of bed. Oh. My. Sweet. Lord. This was the most excruciating pain. I had my husband and the nurse both assisting me, but I felt like every force of nature, gravity, and hell was pulling down on my insides. The kind of pain you have when you've overdone it with situps or crunches, only magnified and maybe with some fiery hellish feeling added. I had to hold on to them to walk, and every move--forward, sideways, up, down-- was pure pain. I needed help to do ANYTHING but lay down. When I threw up that water, I thought I was going to faint from the pain of the involuntary lurching of those stomach muscles.
I didn't really want to go home from the hospital, mostly because I didn't want to have to get into the truck, I knew that would be difficult. Absolutely anything concerning movement of abdominal or core muscles is excruciating right now.
My breasts don't really seem to be hurting me much, nor the incision area from the tummy tuck. It's the middle-inside-muscley part that is ridiculously painful. I cannot get out of bed by myself (or into it for that matter).
I'm loving the new rack! Even though they won't settle into their real shape for months, It's pretty wonderful already. I'm very excited for those girls to be healed up.
The drains from the tummy tuck are by far my least favorite accessory. They look like little clear rubber grenades hanging from my compression garment! I'm glad they're there, though, because they are draining quite a bit of fluid, which wouldn't feel very good if it was building up inside of my abdomen. Mine are inserted like the ones on the right side of this diagram:
This is what they look like all on their own. Part of them is inside you, collecting fluid and "goop" that can build up. The clear tubing is outside of you, and the bulb is at the end. This is the part you empty and keep track of... it's got a closure on it kind of like a blow-up pool float.
You compress the bulb and close the top so that there's as little air as possible in the bulb... that way, there's a kind of passive suction that draws fluid and goo into the bulb and away from your body. Here's a video where they use happy blue water to demonstrate (you know, like in a maxipad commercial. They don't want to gross you out by using actual bodily-fluid-goo type stuff).
Mr. Right has been very sweet and helpful. A close friend of mine who's a nurse also came to stay with me, and she's doing a great job of keeping up with my meds, emptying the drains, just all-around helpful. I'm really glad she's here.
I am trying to be up and around and walking as much as possible, because I want the healing to happen as soon as it can possibly happen! When I get up from sitting or lying down, there's a really bad burst of pain through my abs, and I have to walk hunched over for a little while before it feels okay to be walking normally. The pain is pretty bad, but it dissipates with more movement.
My diet has consisted mostly of popsicles, jello, ginger ale, and saltines. I did have a little breakfast at the hospital on Tuesday, but had not a lot of appetite. I shared with Mr. Right.
I'm supposed to be able to shower today. That seems kind of scary, so I'm putting it off until later. My hair is a filthy mess but I just really totally don't care.
As I thought it would be, my compression garment/girdle thing is really super sexy. I'm sure the cherry on top is the tubes coming out of it, and the drains safety pinned right up front, lol.
People keep asking when I'm ready for visitors. Hmm. Not yet. I really don't want to put on clothes (though I'm pretty much covered with this bra and the girdle, which goes down past my knees).
More later : ) For now, Im gonna go take a few more shuffle-walking steps around the house then attempt to get back int bed.
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