First I should say, thanks for reading and bearing with us while I was away. I could feel all your prayers and my recovery is going “better than expected” because of your prayers and encouragement. I had lots of hospital visitors so the stay wasn’t that bad. The nurses called my room the party room. We always had a ton of people. It was a party. Kind of. haha. Except I normally look a lot better at parties. I digress.
The morning of surgery went fine, I woke up and showered with the strange antimicrobial/antibacterial/antieverythingelse soap and we headed to the hospital. Once there we waited in a little preOp room with my mom and dad, sister and brother, and my inlaws. It was just a fun time to visit. Then they had me say my goodbyes. It was a little different because Chris could only go a certain distance back with me…so I cried because I got a little scared. But it was too late to change my mind! I was wheeled into this fantastic white and stainless steel room, it was so bright and clean. Everyone was wearing white and they all smiled and said hi to me. I remember thinking “wow this is so clean” and I don’t even think I had a countdown, I was just out like magic! The next thing I knew I was waking up in recovery. Not in pain. Thank you GOD!!
I was put in ICU for two days and don’t remember a whole lot, which is probably best. I remember Kendra came by and brought me a magazine, and I remember my mom telling me how excited she was, my stomach was so flat and my boobs looked really good! I couldn’t see them and didn’t really have the desire to at that point, so I just trusted that they were there. A couple days in ICU and NOT eating anything, seriously two bites of orange jello was about all I could tolerate! Then they moved me to a normal room. So I was out of ICU in two days when they originally said three. Yay!
In my normal room I realized exactly how much equipment I was actually attached too. Let’s start with the head, shall me? I had an oxygen tube and monitors on my chest for respiration. They monitored that every hour. I had the IV with fluids, antibiotic, and Morphine. My morphine button was in my control, so it was about every hour, if not 30 minutes. I would rather not remember the whole experience haha. Let’s see, what else? On my new boobs, there were these really cool blinking lights that looked like nipples. They had been sutured in onto my skin and were to beep if the blood flow became blocked. They blinked red all night. haha. I had six drains, which were approximately the size of eggs, sticking out of my abdomen from my insides. They collected fluids. Lovely, no? Ugh, so gross. Then there was the gauze. I looked like a mummy, there was gauze from my neck to my thighs. And it was taped up all tight. So I still don’t really know what I look like! Oh, these great leg circulation things on my ankles up to my knees that would squish my legs. It wasn’t so bad except they made me itchy and sweaty and there was nothing I could do. They didn’t come off. Until I could walk around, which was Friday.
Then Dr Bajaj released me, early! I got to come home yesterday, Saturday, after thinking that I’d be in the hospital for at least another week! I am healing tremendously. Which is great, but it gives me a false sense of ability, in a way. Dr Bajaj was VERY clear that one wrong move, one reach too high, one time picking up my laptop, and all this would be undone and irrepairable. So I am still very fragile, but I am starting to feel a lot better.
That’s all I have. I need a Percoset and a nap. Hopefully I’ll update soon with another good report!
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