Day 42. SIX WEEK Checkup!

The past week has been not too bad!

I am slowly but surely back to normal.  I'm not really any slower than anyone else when walking in the mall, in a parking lot, or whatever.

I have no had any pain medications this week, save for a motrin one day when my neck was bothering me.  That isn't surgery-related, so I'm not counting it ; )

I'm doing a lot of normal things, and I even got to empty the cat box... womp-womp-wommmmp.  Yay, I can once again scoop poop. I have to get comfy and sit on the floor, and have Mr. Right take the clipping-lid off for me, but I can scoop that poop.

I'm trying to be in Christmas decorating mode, but clearly I can't get up and put lights on the house, I can't get down on the floor on my hands/knees/belly and tie the tree skirt on the tree... but I have methodically gotten my family members to do these things for me by "asking nicely" 2 or 3 or 647 times.  For the most part they've been great.  Mr. Right and the kids finally got all the stuff down from the attic on Sunday night so really, I can start : )

My breasts are totally healed shut with the exception of one tiny spot at the base of my left nipple, where there had been a suture knot, so it's taking a little longer.  It's on its way though, it's no longer "oozing" and has dried over.  Left nipple is still the sensitive one, but it's getting better.  I'm still driving with my little pillow (when not wearing the "Coobie" bra that has the little nipple-cover inserts).

I can hold my cat on my chest without discomfort, so he's happy about that. If he comes to sit on my lap and rubs that left nipple, though, he is outta luck and promptly ejected.

I am more able to sleep on my side comfortably, which is kind of awesome.

Me and Mr. Right went to a birthday party on Saturday, and there was dancing.  I can shake it a little, but not as much as I will eventually be able to shake it!  I thought I'd pay for that the next morning but as it turned out, I was fine.

Six Week Checkup

I went and saw Doc for my 6-week follow-up.  They weighed me, and I have lost about 10 pounds since surgery... which makes sense since they took 8 pounds off of me and my muscles are most likely wasting away from lack of true exercise ; )

I took my list-o-questions in and got the following answers:

Q: Are the areola-silicone-pasties in yet?
A: Doc's wife looked into that.  They'll be here in the next few days, so I'll just go pick them up whenever.

Q: Do I need to wear the compression garment still?  How often?
A: No need to wear it, if it makes me more comfortable I'm welcome to keep wearing it.  At this point, the choice is mine.

Q: How often do I need to be wearing the silicone scar-healer pieces?  The package says "at least 6 hours a day" but gives no other direction.  Is this a 24-hours, all the time thing?  Does my skin need to breathe or anything?
A: As often as I'm comfortable with.  Take them off for shower, then put them back on... but yes, at least 6 hours a day.  There's no such thing as too much, and my skin doesn't need a break or anything.

Q: The oozing-openings on my abdominal incision, so, what's up with that?  Specifics of caring for it?  Timeline?  How long is this gonna go on?
A: The "Super Metabolizing" of the sutures is my body's immune system's way of getting foreign matter the heck out of my body... so it's metabolizing.  The ooze is the result.  While annoying and seemingly alarming, this is okay and actually a good sign that my immune system is strong and working hard.  Once the underneath-layer is done eating up those sutures, the ooze will stop and my outer layer of skin will be able to heal back together.  We don't really know how long it'll take, but best guess is a couple of weeks.

Q: Can I exercise?
A: Start slowly, ease into it, if I hurt too much or notice a lot of oozing from my ab incision, slow it down and take it a little easier.  Listen to my body.

So, nothing really hugely surprising there.

Doc's wife did explain that if the Super-metabolizing situation left me with a wider scar than they're comfortable with, they will fix it for me at no charge in the office's procedure room.  This sounds scary, but I trust them.  I doubt they're gonna have me swig whiskey and give me a piece of leather to bite on while they work it up.

With cosmetic surgery, I'm a "walking business card" and they want their business card to look nice.  I think she told me that part because she knows I'm the kind of person who'd be like, "Oh, it's fine.  I'm not going to be doing any nude modeling, we don't have to fix it", but they want the outcome of their work to be up to their standards.  I can understand this completely, and don't mind having a flawless flaw, LOL!



Pain Level

As I mentioned before, I haven't needed any pain medication this week for surgery-related issues. That's kind of awesome!

Breasts are still sensitive, but definitely an improvement over last week.  I don't feel as though they've been sandpapered, but if I press on them or hold something up against my chest, I still can feel discomfort.  Nipples are getting less sensitive.

No real "gravity/letdown" feeling when I get up in the morning.

Slight improvement from last week, but my abs are still sore about half the time-- and particularly on the left side, which I think I use more to stabilize myself since I'm right-handed.   I still get up slowly from chairs because that's what seems to be the most comfortable.  Getting up too fast or using only my abs is not comfortable. Restaurant booths are not a huge problem, but given the choice I'd still prefer a table-and-chair.

Energy/Strength Level

Energy level continues to improve.  No naps, although I'm still allowing myself to sleep until I wake up most days.

Strength and range of motion are improving.  I don't really keep the grabber handy and I've only used it once this week-- after cleaning the cat box I needed to get the scoop-handle off the ground, and quite frankly it had been a long day of sitting at my desk using the core muscles to keep me upright.  The grabber was right there, and I was happy to see it.  I certainly no longer depend on it like I did before.

I went out with the husband to the dancing-party and did a lot of dancing, and made it comfortable through the whole party with no ill effects after... now, I wasn't able to go out to the bar with my friends after the party, because by 11:30 it had already been a pretty long day for me... but I'm not certain that's attributed to surgery or my being 37 and not going "out to bars" very much anymore.  I had a light refreshing signature cocktail punch all night, so I was feeling like a shower and a snooze were in order.

Things I can't do right now:
I could not lift a small child or go bowling in my current condition.  Reaching up really high is still uncomfortable.  I am still dragging the laundry hamper in lieu of picking it up.  Reaching anything that is low-down and requires me to reach forward is still tough.  Chores like emptying the dishwasher are still very uncomfortable because there is SO much up and down, and a lot of low-reaching.


Hugging Level

People are still being pretty sensitive about hugging me, but it's getting better.  My inebriated friend gave me a big hug when I was also inebriated and it didn't hurt.  I kind of test my hugging-comfort-level on Mr. Right every day, and it's definitely getting better.

If anyone tried to pick me up and hug me I'd have to kill them, though.  That would hurt a lot.



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)

Still lovin' on a limited schedule, but my muscles are kind of re-figuring out how they used to work.  I haven't gotten naked yet.  I can't imagine anyone wanting to look at the gaping oozing ab incision during romance, and no way in hell am I doing it in the dark when he might accidentally put a hand somewhere it doesn't need to go.  There is also the added security of the bra, which helps the sensitive boobs not bounce all around.  We aren't back to full strength, and there is still no spooning.

I'd give this week's snuggling ability level a 6 out of 10.