A Little Over A Week Post-Op, by Caroline

I am a little over a week post-op. Here’s a little recap…

I’m doing pretty well. I didn’t like the side effects of the narcotics so I took myself off of them on Friday. Managing the pain with Tylenol and Motrin seems to be working for the most part. There have been a few times I thought about something stronger, but I distract myself instead and that’s been ok.

How am I distracting myself? Binge watching Scandal on Netflix. Yep. I’m addicted.

My breasts look like they were Muhammad Ali’s punching bag. They are impressively bruised. You know when you pull your gown back on day five after your surgery and both the plastic surgeon and his nurse go, “Oh!” that something is up. Well, it turns out that the Lovenox shots I had to give myself so I wouldn’t get a blood clot (I have one years ago) caused an extreme amount of bruising. So… no more Lovenox. Add in Arnica to help dissolve the bruising. It’s getting better, very slowly, but surely.

The drains. In case you don’t know about drains, they are long tubes inserted into my side, just below my breasts with a bulb on the end/outside. Their purpose is to pull the extra fluid (think blood, lymphatic fluid) out of the body so that it doesn’t cause swelling or become a breeding ground for bacteria at the wound site. “Milking” my drains is a thing. My husband and my mom have gotten quite good at it. It’s looking like the right side drainage may be small enough by my plastic surgeon appointment on Friday to have that one removed. But the left one, while gradually diminishing, is still going pretty strong. I can’t wait to sleep on my side without making sure the site where the drain inserts isn’t pulling or twisting, etc. And here it sounds like I am complaining. I spoke with a woman the other day who had EIGHT drains! Ugh! Two is easy.

Then on Monday, I meet with my oncologist. We got the news that my lymph nodes and “margins” were clear. So, it sounds like I am going to be one of the really lucky ones who will take a pill for five years and be able to avoid chemo and radiation. I will get the final answer on that, hopefully, on Monday.

I am not really getting stir crazy yet. I’ve started spending some time each day catching up on my crazy email inboxes, reading a little, and, oh- did I mention binge watching Scandal?