My recovery continues.  They say that the pain peaks around day 3 after surgery; by then the block has worn off, and the healing has only just begun.  I am still trying to figure out the right combo of pain meds; so far the negative side effects are outweighing the pain.  Honestly the pain is not that bad.  I am feeling run down and running a low temp on and off, but that is to be expected.  Getting in lots and lots of naps!

Today Tad drove me to my first post-op, with Dr. FixIt’s nurse.  I’ve been anxious about this appointment since it would be the first time I’d see the “damage.” After the surgery and ever since then I’ve been wearing a zip-front bra over a huge sheet of cotton that covers the surgery site and the gap between the top of the bra and my throat.  Upon discharge from the hospital, I was told to leave this on and to take sponge baths.

At Dr. FixIt’s office, the nurse took all this off and Tad and I got to see everything.  It was less gory than I feared – the stitches look fine, there is no crusted blood anywhere, and the bruising is limited.  So that’s good.  The boob itself looks pretty pissed off though; as if it’s saying, “What the hell have you done to me??”  The best way I can think to describe it is as if the bottom half of the breast was removed.  What’s left is somewhat football shaped – even the stitches kind of look like football laces!  Below the breast itself is the port for the drain.

The nurse cleaned things up a bit, took a photo, and re-applied about a quarter of the cotton. Then we put the big bra back on over it all. Tomorrow morning I can take it all off and take a real shower, then apply a new dressing that she sent me home with.

The nurse also explained to me that many of the side-effects I’d attributed to the Percocet may have been actually due to the anti-nausea patch … At which point I immediately removed the patch!!   Otherwise everything looks good (I suppose it’s all relative) and we were on our way.

I’ve had a couple of visitors already and would love to have more! Text me and come on by!