Day 56: 8-week Checkup... and life's kinda back to normal.

Well, it's been a pretty uneventful week for the most part.   I've Christmassed up this house, done some shopping, done some work, just kind of normal holiday season!  I don't really feel like I'm "special surgery person" anymore, and I have not found myself having to modify other activities because of pain/discomfort much.

A friend's father passed away, and I went to the funeral.  My friend's wife had triplets a few years back, and has a lot of excess skin on her abdomen.  She shared with me that she's scheduled her tummy tuck, so I invited her into the giant handicap stall in the church bathroom and showed her my tummy incision... I'm happy to see that she's excited to have that extra sagging skin gone.  I felt a little odd flashing someone in a bathroom stall, but in this application, I guess it's ok.

The 8-week checkup

Doc took some pictures of my 8-week progress.  My tummy is good and flat, so that's nice!  The super-metabolizing issue is resolving itself, but I still can't take a bath because it isn't completely sealed up.  There are still a couple of small spots that are oozing infrequently and have not healed back together.  On the bright side, the oozing is a super-slow leak, it doesn't increase when I exercise or anything.  I've been sleeping with the incision exposed to the air so my skin can suck it up and get to healing.  Momma wants a bubble bath!

I got my silicone gel sheeting for the abdominal incision, but i haven't worn it yet.  Doc is still under the assumption that because of the super-metabolizing, my scar won't be up to his standards of fantastic, and they'll have to mend it later to be thinner and prettier.

Notable events this week...
Well, I tried some bra shopping.  Meh.  Nothing is feeling spectacular besides my nice little microfiber bra friends with the padding across the  nipples.  Putting on anything with an underwire makes me feel caged.  I had Doc's wife measure me, and she came up with 38 D or DD... I tried some on at Target (probably mistake #1, I should look at better bras!) but they all felt tight and... not particularly "pokey", just not good.  So screw it.  I'm wearing my microfiber friends for a while longer.

I found a really comfy one at a discount store (Marshall's).  It was in the "yoga" section of the workout wear,  it's just another microfiber bra with pads, but hey, it's what I like.  I'll wear real bras when/if I need to.

I do need to find a more stabilizing sports bra.  I am still in the process of un-swelling, so I'm hesitant to drop the big bucks on anything because I know in a few weeks it'll be useless to me.  Right now I'm rocking a Champion bra from Target.  I bought it 2 weeks ago, and already I'm seeing that I'm a little bouncier now than I was when I bought it (YAY!).

In other news, I need some new underwear.  Mine are just barely too baggy, but when I try and wear them under something fitted, you can see their baggy-ness.

I can sleep on my side comfortably, I can almost even sleep on my tummy comfortably... maybe next week.

Pain Level

Left nipple is slowly but surely calming down, LOL!  I can still feel it more frequently than normal people can feel their nipples.  Sometimes it's an itchy sensation, sometimes it's like the feeling when your'e really cold and your nipples harden-- not "pain", but not pleasant.  It is not as bad as it's been in weeks past.  Last week the left side of my abs was sensitive and felt sore, but that has gone away.

When I get up from sitting for a while, my abdominal muscles feel "hard", like I need to stretch them out or something.  It sort of feels like they had settled into the position of sitting, and standing up makes them have to "warm up" and stretch out again (for like 3 seconds).  It isn't pain, just a sense that you are far more aware of muscles than usual.  I'm starting to get more feeling back in the non-muscle part of my abdominal skin & fascia too.

My breasts are not really painful/sensitive (save for that left nipple).  I am still very conscious of my front side when I'm around little kids being crazy/running around, or anything like that.



Energy/Strength Level

I'd say I'm at a relatively normal energy level... I jogged/walked twice this week (each time, about 3 miles) and felt pretty much the way you should feel after something like that when you haven't worked out in a while.

Strength and range of motion continue to improve.  I lifted a stack of 4 outdoor patio chairs and carried them into the house the other day.  I probably shouldn't have (I was more worried about my back not being up to strength than anything surgery related), but hey, I did.

I can squat down and get stuff off the floor, or back in a cabinet.  I lifted my kitchenaid mixer from a bottom cabinet, so that was cool.  I can reach up pretty high.  On my right side, I feel a little tightness/discomfort when I try to reach up to the tippy top of out super high cabinets, but it isn't "pain".

I can pick up and hold my ~20 pound dog.  When I was taking a box of Christmas cards to the post office yesterday (160 cards or so, so it was a big cardboard box) I was not super comfortable resting the box against my stomach.  It didn't hurt, it just wasn't comfortable.  Same for when I'm carrying a heavy load of something that needs to rest on my abdomen or chest.  If it's soft, it's one thing.  If it's flat and hard like cardboard, it's not my fave.


Hugging Level

As long as my hugger isn't being super aggressive, I think I'd say I'm back to normal hugging capacity.


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)

I can totally spoon.  I love it!  I am back in the snuggling zone!

In the forking department, I can tell you this:  I'm back. Even in a bellies-touching sweaty scenario.  Perhaps not back to 100% but certainly a good 95%.

Day 49: Seven Weeks post-op. I RAN!

Since we last chatted, I've been going without my compression garment most days, wheeee!  I feel a lot less "naked" without it now, so that's good.

The past week's been really just fine.  No meds needed other than something to quell menstrual cramps,  so I say I am continuing to heal up successfully!

Big Events:

I officially returned to work.  Now, I'm self-employed so this is kind of "as much or as little as I choose" but if anyone out there is a business owner, you probably know that it's kind of all-or-nothing and your work can really consume you.  It isn't something you can half-ass successfully.

I work in the event business, so there's a great deal of desk work-- e-mail handling, design work, keeping abreast of current trends and happenings via facebook, twitter, pinterest.  This being the end-o-year holiday party season, there's a lot going on.  There's been a lot of sitting upright at the computer and I have lovely news-- my breasts no longer have to rest on my desk to relieve that horrid mid-back-shoulder-blade-hot-knife pain.  Why not?  Because it no longer exists : )

For the more manual-laborious part of my work, I'm running around, carrying heavy stuff, needing to be really aware, all the while trying to look super pretty and wear the most attractive yet comfortable shoes I can find.  Sometimes behind the scenes I'm sprawled on the ground, working criss-cross-applesauce (or as they said in the olden days, "Indian style").  Sometimes I'm hauling stuff into the trunk of a car and making a break for it, trying to get ahead of my event guests and perform feats of space-time travel unknown to most.  Of course, this all takes place in a stretch of 11-12 hours at a time, nonstop, and generally lasts mid-day into the wee hours of the morning... when I get to haul a bunch of heavy stuff into my car and go home.



This weekend, I had an event.  I was nervous because it way my first since the surgery, and I wasn't sure what my body could handle... luckily I have a snappy assistant who's always there to help and can sort of read my mind at this point.  Note: I have to dress cute, so I did wear my compression garment just for safety's sake, and because I had on a fitted dress... and appreciated the support.

Early in the day, I was kind of feeling some fatigue, maybe a little bit of pain/muscle fatigue, just because I haven't done this in almost 2 months.  It's also worth throwing out there that I was on the VERGE of Shark Week (period time, for those not familiar with the jargon). I usually get hit with at least one day of "Who slipped the Ambien in my breakfast milk?!?!?!" before the shark attack occurs, and this happened to be it.  Complete with cramps.  OH HOORAY.  Aleve to the rescue (and also, caffeine).

I made it through.  I didn't have the back and shoulder pain.  IT WAS GREAT!  I even joined the hosts for some bouncy-dancing to "Call Me Maybe".  I got home, went to sleep for 4 hours, and woke up again because I had some follow-up work to do for the clients that required early morning wake-up... and I wasn't even sore.  Unprecedented, really.

Ok, my feet were sore, but that's all.

My Super-Metabolizing is slowing down.
I'm not oozing so much anymore from my tummy incision, things are drying up like they're supposed to.  I hope this means that sucker will start to close up and heal over soon so I can take a bubble bath.  My hot tub needs some love.  Come ON, belly.  Heal on up.  I've not been wearing the maxi-pad stuck to the tummy of my undies, and I have been sleeping with my incision open to the air in hopes of it drying up.  Whether it's my efforts or the natural course of healing, I'm seeing improvement.

I actually RAN this morning!
I went out to get some exercise and run some energy out of the dog this morning.  It was cool (it had been pretty warm and muggy the last week or two) after a hard rain last night, so I felt very yippy skippy and was walking at a pretty good pace, when I felt like mixing it up a little with some jogging.  Surprising myself a little, I was able to jog without any weirdness, discomfort, or strain.  Me and the dog made a little neighborhood loop for about 3 miles, and I ran/walked for the duration!

Pain Level

Still no real pain issues where surgery sites are concerned.  I am still acutely more aware of my left side than my right (in both ab muscles and the nipple) but it's a slight improvement over last week.

My breasts are sensitive if I push really hard on them... so I don't do that.  I'm still on guard on my frontal space when I'm in a crowd, just because there's still the feeling of "What if someone runs into me and bumps a hurty place?" but I clearly felt well enough to jump around on a dance floor to a teeny bopper song.

I can get out of soft chairs, or up off of the couch, or out of a restaurant booth with little effort.  I don't "need" arms or help getting up unless it's a case of getting up off of the floor in a dress, when having a hand to help me up is definitely appreciated!  I can lean forward and bend over and pick up stuff, but not super heavy stuff.

Energy/Strength Level

Energy level continues to improve.  No naps, (except for Sunday after I had 4 hours of sleep the night before), and I'm getting up at a normal time.

Strength and range of motion continue to improve.  I was able to lift, pull, twist, and do quite a bit where work is concerned, which made me happy.  I helped Mr. Right get the Christmas lights out on the lawn, and did a great deal of core-moving when I had to string lights around trees and through the bushes.  I'm almost feeling kind of normal again, wheeee.

Things I can't do right now:
I could not lift a toddler in my current condition, though I could probably hold a baby or something.  Like, no kids over 30 pounds...  Reaching up really high is not really a huge problem.  I am no longer dragging the laundry hamper in lieu of picking it up.  Reaching anything that is low-down and requires me to reach forward is getting easier.


Hugging Level

Not back to pre-surgery hugging level yet, but I'm 80% of the way there.  A big squeezy hug would be bad but regular hugs seem to be fine.

I test my hugging abilities when Mr. Right gets home from work every day.  He's a big burly man, so it's not like hugging a rock, he has some give... but I'm getting much more comfortable with pressing my front against his front and holding that pattern with a little squeeze.



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)

I think I can almost spoon.  Last night was the first time I could really roll over to him in bed and give him a hug/kiss and it felt so nice : )

I have nothing to report in the forking department.  Just not much of that going on with it being busy season and me being mind-tired and laden with PMS.  Sorry to disappoint!  Maybe once shark week is over there'll be more to tell.

Day 43: Attempting a whole day with no compression garment.

So... leaving doc's yesterday, I re-dressed and did not put the CG back on since he'd said it was at my discretion.

As soon as I got back home, I put it on.  I felt too funny without.

I decided that I'd sleep without the garment, and then see how I felt.  It was hard to get used to at first, because the CG is kind of your shield from the world.  You feel like when wearing it, nothing can hurt your incision and there is just no danger.  Security blanket.  You feel held-in.  It's a security blanket that hugs.

Today when I woke up, I decided I'd try going without.  I'm wearing stretchy pants and still feel the need to put my hand over my tummy incision if I cough or sneeze.  I will admit that after having spent a LOT of time at the desk doing design work yesterday, then leaning forward and scooping cat litter, my abs are sore and I kinda want the compression garment.  I feel like if it were pushing on my tummy, the muscles would feel better.

Maybe I just miss it ; )

I'm working on keeping today au naturale (Ihave a maxi pad on the inside of my undies, placed across my tummy incision to absorb any ooze).

I don't know about this, LOL!!!

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.

Day 35... 5 Weeks! I successfully navigated Thanksgiving.

It's officially been five weeks since my surgery, and I've started back to some desk work.  I'm all-around feeling good!  HOORAY!

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!!!

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.

Day 25: Purging the closet

So, this morning I had to help a friend run an errand.  I had to be kind of a "secret shopper" so I got up, showered, and made myself presentable (hello again, maternity jeans, don't mind if I do!).  She picked me up, we ran our errand, and had lunch.

Once I got home, I decided it was about time to start trying on some of my old clothes to see what I needed to keep, and what I needed to toss.  There ended up being a lot of tops and dresses that no longer work on me, so I purged them from the closet and bagged 'em up.  Some will go to a friend and the rest will probably go to donation.

The jury is still out on pants, since I can't comfortably try anything on at the moment.

I piled up all my old bras and swimsuits (most of which were bra-cup-specific) and put them into a clothing bin... I'll wash them on the "sanitize" cycle in the washer and re-bin them, then figure out what the heck to do with them.

Do you offer people your old bras?  I mean, they were expensive, and there are at least 10 or 12.  Like, no one bra cheaper than $50 or so.  It's not like they're undies that have touched a bodily-fluids part... they're bras.  They touched breasts.  That's it.  How is this really all that different form donating or passing on your old towels or sheets?  Quite frankly, bras are kind of less possible-cootie-harboring contraptions than towels or sheets.

We'll see.  I mean there's always Craigslist.  I don't know of any organizations that collect giant secondhand bras.

I also helped Mr. Right get my Career Day stuff out of my car and into my storage unit.  I absolutely did not lift anything too heavy or over-exert myself in any way.  I am in take-it-easy mode because I do not want to slow this process down.

The swelling in my breasts is definitely going down.  They are hard/firm along the bottom, and I don't know if they'll be like that forever or if that's part of the process... we shall see.  My nipples are not being all crazy-oversensitive as much, so I'm happy about that!

My tummy incision is still showing angry signs, but no more so than yesterday, so I'm staying on the course of antibiotics and we'll see what Doc has to say on Monday (I have my 4-week appointment then).

In other totally interesting news, we had Chinese food for dinner.  I've only taken antibiotic and Benadryl today!  No real need for pain or muscle relaxer meds.  I took some Aleve because I got a wicked crick in my neck from looking over at my friend in her car and talking to her.  That's the first neck and shoulder pain I've had in 25 days, though.  Quite a change from the "every single day" back/neck/shoulder pain.  Benadryl because after I cleaned my tummy incision and gauzed/taped it up, I had an itching fit and just couldn't stand it.  I undid my garment, took off the tape/gauze, and methodically stuffed an old pair of soft panties between my skin and the compression garment.

: )