Last week I spent the week relaxing at home, recovering from my reconstructive surgery. When I got home I noticed some tiny, weird cuts on my right arm, and on my abdomen. At the post-op visit with the nurse the next day, she didn’t know what caused them – she guessed that they draped me with something and used staples, maybe a bit too enthusiastically…? So strange. The other weird thing was that my foot neuroma was killing me. I have Morton’s neuroma in my left foot that I’ve had since high school. I also have mild lingering neuropathy from the chemo that did make the neuroma more noticeable for a while. But immediately after surgery it actually hurt to walk. What the heck did they do to my feet while I was asleep???

But it was all quite tolerable. I took pain meds the first two nights, but nothing during the day, and nothing since then except Tylenol once in a while. As long as I follow the rules (no heavy lifting, no extended reaching) things mostly don’t hurt. I will say though that everything itches, but I guess that means it’s healing.

I had no problems with the drains (other than that they suck) except for Saturday night. And, of course, we were out camping on Saturday night. That night one of the drains got a huge clog in it. Murphy’s law, of course it would happen while camping. I eventually got the clog out and all was well.

But my big news is that today I got the drains out!! The drains had to stay in at least one week, and there had to be less than 30cc per day of volume, which I barely achieved for Righty (Lefty was draining hardly anything by this morning). Good enough. The nurse patiently peeled the plastic bandages off of Lefty (not Righty – radiated skin takes longer to heal, so they’ll stay on for now), and then snipped the stitch out that was holding the drains in place. She told me to take a deep breath and then pulled it out, first Lefty, then Righty. There was about six inches of drain that came out the left side, and over 12 inches on the right side! It was pretty gross. It definitely was an unpleasant experience, between picking at the incisions, retaping them, and yanking out the drain… I kept my eyes closed, focused on my breathing, and stayed in my “happy place” (sitting on the patio, with a cool breeze and the setting sun, enjoying one of Tad’s famous gin & tonics…).

So now I’m a bit sore but not too bad, and thrilled to be free of drains. The girls look pretty damn good by now. Lefty has “settled” as promised, and they look pretty even, all things considered.