hahaha yep! that is me right after surgery! mom took that with her phone...do I look high or what! and well, I was! :D I remember going into the room and being on the table...I was allowed to take George with me and when I came to he was in my hand :) I had a UNC med school resident scrubbing in on the surgery so I already knew I was going to be fine (go heels)...
so mom and I get back to the hotel and I prop myself up on the pillows and turn on the tv...now I know I was out of it b/c I actually stopped on the Kardashian wedding and was watching it....as soon as I realized what it was I changed the channel! I tweeted, I texted, you know, my usual...I eventually fell asleep and woke up thinking, holy hell where are my pain meds! I was fine in terms of nausea until about 5:30am...I did get up and get sick but fortunately it was just that once...
next day I am set to go in to see the doc for a follow up....he was busy with a face lift (that's what they had said) so I saw his partner in the practice...he thought things looked fine but they wanted me to come back the next day so my doc could see me since I was staying another night....so I go back, have some grub, and proceed to think that my left armpit was going to be sliced open any minute...gross I know...but the compression band I had to wear was literally cutting into my pits...it hurt more than where I had been operated on! this was a major source of pain and discomfort for the next 24hrs...
so Wednesday I go back in....we had had breakfast (I had grits!) and checked out of the hotel but the whole morning I just didn't feel well....I even fell asleep in the waiting area and in the room waiting for the doctor...he came in, thought things looked good, and loosened that band....matter of fact the first thing he said was, oh this doesn't need to be this tight...now I had never touched it from when they put it on after the surgery so I had no idea...he actually took it off to examine the work and it was like a magical fairy had come by! I felt instantly better! that and I had had some coffee that they brew there that is some AWESOME stuff...it was some sort of a vanilla/hazelnut blend...major yum
so after all of that excitement we drive back up to raleigh (surgery was in charlotte) and I'm home again...I was happy to see lil man again :) Susan did an awesome job looking after him and she said he behaved for her but that he missed me...awwww...Wed was pretty much uneventful and I took my meds and went to bed....Thurs was much the same...
Friday rolls around and mom goes to work and goes home this time...it was nice to have her here but it was also nice to get back to being here on my own...but that night I had some major issues...not really pain but more like discomfort....my back hurt, my right side hurt (that's the side that had the lift), and it was like the implants had turned into two bowling balls full of pain (and weight!)....I was miserable! so on Fri and Sat I found myself walking around the apt wondering what the hell I had just done to myself...I'm thinking, well genius, you wanted it, now you got it!
Sunday was much better...things were settling down a little bit and I was starting to not use any pain meds...soon I switched from the pain meds completely to just taking some tylenol pm at night...getting off the pain meds proved to be the best thing for me mentally b/c it was really screwing with my head....
cute bra, huh? ;) tape was still on but so much of the swelling had subsided by this point....still had some sloshing though...and OMG my right one sloshed a little bit and sounded like a duck! no really! my boob QUACKED! HAHAHAHAHA
now Tues I ventured out for the first time and man was it a learning experience...for one thing, shifting gears is quite an undertaking when your right side is still having some tugging and small soreness....more on that later....who knew steering the car would involve so much pec recruitment! same with washing my hands, brushing my teeth, and opening pill bottles...I definitely use my pecs for a lot!
Wednesday I went back for another post-op visit...driving down there was interesting in that I realized just how bumpy our roads are...yeah 'bout that...I get down there, get my tape removed, instructions for the next two weeks, make my next appointment, and get in the car to leave...where I have to put my car into reverse for the first time...that hurt like a bitch....I might as well have just been doing a bench press move with a dumbbell....not smart....so I met mom at the mebane outlets since we'd both be passing them on the way to our respective homes and I tried on some sports bras....still some difficulty doing overhead shirts/bras so that was a little exhausting but I was ok....then I went to another store....I was walking around and all of a sudden I had the worst shooting pain on my right side....so bad that I gave mom what I had in my hand to put up for me and went outside to sit down...every breath I took it felt worse until finally it started to fade and then eventually stopped...my guess was that reverse and then the trying on tops was just too much for the side with the extra work and it decided to let me know...
so far the two days after that have been just fine...they still feel foreign...what is this weight on my chest? oh, right, boobs! I've had moments where I literally felt like I could feel the pockets being made while I sat in the chair...not comfortable that's for sure...all in all this has been unlike anything I have ever experienced...and to be honest, I'm not sure what I was expecting...I do know that I do not play helpless well so this no lifting over 10lbs needs to go and go fast! it's annoying....and I find that I do things now like squat down to pick something up instead of just bending over...why? b/c when I bend over I feel like they're going to fall off....hahahaha...well, I do!
I will be going back to work soon and that has me nervous...having a mostly physical job is going to be a strange transition b/c there are still quite a few things I can't do yet...which will drive me up the wall b/c when I go to work I do not go to be lazy or to have others do the work for me...but I know if I want to continue to heal properly I'll have to suck it up for a couple of more weeks....
on a funnier note, I can't stop looking at them! every time I go by a mirror in my apt I have to look at them...like I can't believe they're actually here....I had my first consultation in 2003...been wanting them since I was 14 (which was definitely not 2003)...and now here I actually am with them! I simply cannot believe it has actually happened...and even though I wake up with them every morning and go to sleep with them every night I still cannot believe the reality...while the experience has been unlike anything I had imagined I would do it all again in a second....
