29 March 2012

Surgery Update

Dan has asked me to do a post to bring everyone up to speed.  When last I left you, I had done a pre-surgery wax job of pits and face. Tuesday night I developed a nasty case of hives on my face.  It was so nasty the I was sure I'd just screwed up my surgery date, since most anesthesiologists won't touch you if you have a rash or allergic reaction.  I popped some benedryl and pulled out an ice pack and spent the evening trying to calm down my face.  By Wednesday morning the redness was mostly gone and I had only a slight texture to my face.  It was good enough for the hospital.

I am, for the most part, an excellent patient.  Nothing by mouth past midnight, all nail polish and jewelry removed, eyeglasses to Dan to hold. I talked to the  nurses, anesthesiologist and then my surgeon. He drew a road map of where to cut and paste and then they put in the IV (poorly) and gave me the versed.  Case closed. I awoke in recovery very nauseous.  They loaded me up with all sorts of anti-nausea drugs but nothing was working, which is why it took about five hours to get out of there.  They wanted to make sure I'd be able to take my pain meds and keep them down.  I popped some tums when I got home and that helped tremendously.


I had a couple of mild doses of Vicodin, but this morning I switched to the ibuprofen.  I slept pretty good yesterday and last night and this morning and then Dan and I drove out to the arboretum and walked for an hour.  I slept some more after that, then I walked up to school for a fourth grade presentation.  I slept after that and then got up for dinner and a shower.  I'm back in bed now and looking forward to some drugs and sleep again.
This surgery is not NEARLY as painful as the last. I am having a slight problem on my left side.  My incision is still bleeding and it stings.  I'll be calling the doc first thing in the morning about it. Dan says I front loaded all the pain by having the first part of the reconstruction piggy-backed onto the mastectomy and he’s probably right.  My chest is sore like I've done too many push ups, not like it was sliced into yesterday.

I'm not able to use my arms, but my legs work fine and the doc released me to start walking as soon as I felt like it... which was today.  If I am up to it, I'll walk tomorrow as well. If not, no worries, I'll resume when I do feel up to it. Dan has secured a number of sick days and has Wed, Thurs, Fri off. Hopefully by the time Monday rolls around I'll be able to function enough without him. We've got a little meal train going, I'm looking for meals next Wed and Friday if you'd like to help out.  We are really working hard on my recovery so I am eating tons of fruits and veggies.  If you have a favorite healthful dish, please share it.
I am sorry to say I have to take the Vicodin tonight instead of the ibuprofen because the ibu is a blood thinner and I'm still bleeding.  That means I'll probably be cranky tomorrow, because narcotics do that to me.  In any event I'm pretty tired, even without the drugs, so I'm heading to bed at 7:30.