Hello, everyone!
I visited my surgeon's PA about a week ago, and she confirmed that everything was going well. The soreness is almost completely gone unless I twist a certain way or lift my arms too high, which is lovely. I am driving and resuming most normal activities. The only really annoying this at this point is that some of the swelling is still quite obviously around and that I can't reach behind my head to tie my hair back - I have to rely on someone else to do it for me. Always the little things.
The PA removed my surgical tape and replaced it with paper tape for cosmetic reasons - the less the scars stretch, the better they will look. After another two weeks, that will come off and I plan on rubbing the scars with emu oil, a substance that my family has had personal experience with in terms of healing surgical scars. My cousin was in a severe car accident that had him fly through a windshield, and after all the surgeries were over, he had some pretty ugly scars all over his forehead. After using emu oil for about a year (and not very much of it, about a drop across the entire forehead a day), it barely shows.
Apart from that, no major problems! It kind of sucks that I can't swim yet, but I am walking quite a lot and enjoying it.
Sunday, June 22, 2014
Wednesday, June 11, 2014
Breast Reduction Surgery - Two Weeks Post-Op
Hallo, everyone!
I completely abandoned this blog thanks to the chemical engineering life at university, but it was fun. It's nice to be back.
I just underwent breast reduction surgery a few weeks ago, and these are my full thoughts up till this point. For now, even two weeks after the surgery is over, I am relieved to have gone through it. My back and neck pain disappeared overnight.
I started as a 32DDD. It is unbelievably difficult to find bras that size, and to be honest, I was probably bigger than that. I just refused to admit it. I had a lot of tightness in my upper back and neck, and physical therapy did help. However, constantly maintaining that looseness was just not possible, and I took my doctor's suggestion of a breast reduction. I got a referral that was completely covered by insurance to see a plastic surgeon.
My surgeon is one of the absolute best in the area. He took care of all the paperwork and submitted to my insurance, and he purposely went low (300 g removal proposal) so that, when insurance rejected him, he could ask for slightly more and be approved. And that is exactly what happened - they asked for 350 g minimum, and he immediately wrote back and said that that was completely fine. And then insurance approved me. I set up my preop, surgical, and post-op appointments.
As soon as I came home from school, I went for my preop. They did a blood pressure check - the lower, the better because, after anesthesia, your blood pressure shoots through the roof. Then I signed all the consent paperwork and headed home.
The day of the surgery, I arrived at the hospital at 5:30 AM and wore a sweatshirt to the hospital. Surgery was due to begin at 7:15 AM, and they did a weight and blood pressure check. They were extremely happy with my 85/40 blood pressure (this is why everyone should have a good exercise regimen), did a pregnancy check for liability reasons (I have to say, this must have been my eighth pregnancy test so far when there is no possible way I could ever have been pregnant), and set me up with an IV. The anesthesiologist came to speak with me. I mentioned to him that, when I was briefly taking Vicodin last year for endometriosis, I needed very little because I try, in general, to not take painkillers. He nodded and sought out an extra brain monitor for that reason. Then, my surgeon came in and marked me up. That took quite a while, but as he said, "measure twice and cut once." He left afterward and said that he would see me when I was conscious in about six weeks maximum.
I am glad that the anesthesiologist found the brain monitor because, about fifteen minutes later, he put a sedative in my IV that he said would quieten me down but shouldn't knock me out. It knocked me about in about ten seconds, and that is not an exaggeration. I briefly remember, what must have been a few minutes later, the doctors in the operating room tapping my shoulder, trying to wake me up so that I could move to the operating table. I somehow managed to get over - I do remember not being able to straighten my leg out from underneath my butt - and that is the last I remembered until I "woke up" with a nurse next to me. She immediately checked my blood pressure, which had gone up to 120/65 (which is good blood pressure, but look at the difference from before surgery). I drifted in and out of sleep for the next hour or so, and as I was feeling okay, I was given some crackers and water before I felt up to going home. I honestly felt completely fine apart from soreness in the area in which I had just been operated. No nausea or anything, for which I was quite lucky. One thing I will say - it is easiest, when you leave the hospital, to wear a garment that is warm but also that you can put your arms straight in front of you (you can't lift your arms above your head) so that someone can button or zip up the back. I wore one of my mum's sweaters backwards, and that worked completely well.
My mum and I didn't want to push the nausea thing, so I ate some jello and went to bed. And I drifted in and out of sleep that first day. I was really, really sore, and they had put in surgical drains that really, really hurt. Life was fairly uneventful, though. I was forbidden from showering, which really sucked. On the second day, I got a really high fever - 102 degrees Fahrenheit - and we called the surgeon, who told me to breathe deeply. Breast reduction makes people very sore in the chest area, and it's tough to breathe deeply. The end result can be fluid buildup in the lungs. That is exactly what had happened to me, and a few hours after I started consciously breathing deeply, my temperature went straight back down. On the third day, we went to see the PA as my surgeon was out of town. She removed my drains, and I changed out of the surgical bra into a front-zip sports bra in a size C cup. That is when the PA told me that they had removed about 450 g from each side (that is a pound - imagine the amount that was pulling me forward). My surgeon says that I should be a size B when all the swelling is gone, and I really hope that that is true. Size C looks okay, but I would prefer smaller than what I am right now. We shall see.
I gradually increased my eating until I was back to a normal diet about four days after surgery. There was one major scare - on the fourth day, I started shaking uncontrollably. I have no idea what happened, but it lasted half an hour, after which I was completely fine.
One thing I have noticed is that I am still slouching out of habit, and my back gets sore very easily. I spend most of my day lying down for that reason. I think that the soreness is the result of my muscles not sitting up straight for the last seven years, and I am going to go for physical therapy and possibly massage therapy after another month or whenever the doctor says I can go.
That is most of the exciting news up till now. I have an appointment in two days with the PA, so we shall see how that goes. I hope this is useful information, and I will continue to update my condition.
I completely abandoned this blog thanks to the chemical engineering life at university, but it was fun. It's nice to be back.
I just underwent breast reduction surgery a few weeks ago, and these are my full thoughts up till this point. For now, even two weeks after the surgery is over, I am relieved to have gone through it. My back and neck pain disappeared overnight.
I started as a 32DDD. It is unbelievably difficult to find bras that size, and to be honest, I was probably bigger than that. I just refused to admit it. I had a lot of tightness in my upper back and neck, and physical therapy did help. However, constantly maintaining that looseness was just not possible, and I took my doctor's suggestion of a breast reduction. I got a referral that was completely covered by insurance to see a plastic surgeon.
My surgeon is one of the absolute best in the area. He took care of all the paperwork and submitted to my insurance, and he purposely went low (300 g removal proposal) so that, when insurance rejected him, he could ask for slightly more and be approved. And that is exactly what happened - they asked for 350 g minimum, and he immediately wrote back and said that that was completely fine. And then insurance approved me. I set up my preop, surgical, and post-op appointments.
As soon as I came home from school, I went for my preop. They did a blood pressure check - the lower, the better because, after anesthesia, your blood pressure shoots through the roof. Then I signed all the consent paperwork and headed home.
The day of the surgery, I arrived at the hospital at 5:30 AM and wore a sweatshirt to the hospital. Surgery was due to begin at 7:15 AM, and they did a weight and blood pressure check. They were extremely happy with my 85/40 blood pressure (this is why everyone should have a good exercise regimen), did a pregnancy check for liability reasons (I have to say, this must have been my eighth pregnancy test so far when there is no possible way I could ever have been pregnant), and set me up with an IV. The anesthesiologist came to speak with me. I mentioned to him that, when I was briefly taking Vicodin last year for endometriosis, I needed very little because I try, in general, to not take painkillers. He nodded and sought out an extra brain monitor for that reason. Then, my surgeon came in and marked me up. That took quite a while, but as he said, "measure twice and cut once." He left afterward and said that he would see me when I was conscious in about six weeks maximum.
I am glad that the anesthesiologist found the brain monitor because, about fifteen minutes later, he put a sedative in my IV that he said would quieten me down but shouldn't knock me out. It knocked me about in about ten seconds, and that is not an exaggeration. I briefly remember, what must have been a few minutes later, the doctors in the operating room tapping my shoulder, trying to wake me up so that I could move to the operating table. I somehow managed to get over - I do remember not being able to straighten my leg out from underneath my butt - and that is the last I remembered until I "woke up" with a nurse next to me. She immediately checked my blood pressure, which had gone up to 120/65 (which is good blood pressure, but look at the difference from before surgery). I drifted in and out of sleep for the next hour or so, and as I was feeling okay, I was given some crackers and water before I felt up to going home. I honestly felt completely fine apart from soreness in the area in which I had just been operated. No nausea or anything, for which I was quite lucky. One thing I will say - it is easiest, when you leave the hospital, to wear a garment that is warm but also that you can put your arms straight in front of you (you can't lift your arms above your head) so that someone can button or zip up the back. I wore one of my mum's sweaters backwards, and that worked completely well.
My mum and I didn't want to push the nausea thing, so I ate some jello and went to bed. And I drifted in and out of sleep that first day. I was really, really sore, and they had put in surgical drains that really, really hurt. Life was fairly uneventful, though. I was forbidden from showering, which really sucked. On the second day, I got a really high fever - 102 degrees Fahrenheit - and we called the surgeon, who told me to breathe deeply. Breast reduction makes people very sore in the chest area, and it's tough to breathe deeply. The end result can be fluid buildup in the lungs. That is exactly what had happened to me, and a few hours after I started consciously breathing deeply, my temperature went straight back down. On the third day, we went to see the PA as my surgeon was out of town. She removed my drains, and I changed out of the surgical bra into a front-zip sports bra in a size C cup. That is when the PA told me that they had removed about 450 g from each side (that is a pound - imagine the amount that was pulling me forward). My surgeon says that I should be a size B when all the swelling is gone, and I really hope that that is true. Size C looks okay, but I would prefer smaller than what I am right now. We shall see.
I gradually increased my eating until I was back to a normal diet about four days after surgery. There was one major scare - on the fourth day, I started shaking uncontrollably. I have no idea what happened, but it lasted half an hour, after which I was completely fine.
One thing I have noticed is that I am still slouching out of habit, and my back gets sore very easily. I spend most of my day lying down for that reason. I think that the soreness is the result of my muscles not sitting up straight for the last seven years, and I am going to go for physical therapy and possibly massage therapy after another month or whenever the doctor says I can go.
That is most of the exciting news up till now. I have an appointment in two days with the PA, so we shall see how that goes. I hope this is useful information, and I will continue to update my condition.
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