Wedensday morning, Jim and I left the house at about 4:20, to make it to the hospital in Dallas by 5:45. Check in went smoothe- I was given my gown and socks, then they sent me upstairs to wait. The nurses were all excited that Dr. Duffy was doing my surgery- everyone there said he was very good. That is very encouraging! They gave me a xanax to calm my nerves but honestly I wasnt nervous at all, I was just excited!
The doctor came in and had me get out of bed and take my gown off. He then drew a bunch of lines all over me with a marker- on my tummy and both breasts. The hardest thing in reconstruction is getting the crease of the bottom of the boob right, so he had to make sure to match it up with my existing breast. The nurse came in and started my IV line. Usually by this point they give you meds to knock you out. This time, they waited until I was in the operating room, and moved over to the correct table. I know it didn't take long- I didn't even count at all! They said "think of a happy dream" BAM! I was out cold!
When I woke up, I wasn't in a great deal of pain- probably because they were using demerol instead of morphine. Back in August when I had my mastectomy, I wouldn't look at the bandages or what was beneath. In fact it was probably about a week or longer before I could bear to look. This time, I wanted to look as soon as I woke up! I was so excited! When I did look, I immediately started laughing! You may think that's an odd response but here is why- I had a tattoo on my abdomen. It was ugly and stretched out from 3 kids (really wasn't nice to begin with) it was a flower- I guess it sort of looked like a carnation. Well, I had discussed with the doctor the location and he felt that at least part of the tattoo would end up on the flap he would have to make somehow. Well, the flower ended up being smack dab in the middle- it looks like it is right where my areola would be! Oh man- funny doctor! It is really pretty awesome looking. Overall surgery took somewhere between 4 1/2- 5 hours. They expected it to take about 6, so less is good! When they first had me in recovery I was in a warm room. I don't remember feeling particularly uncomfortable but I know I remember them telling me they had to have the room warm, and if I needed to cool off, my only option would be to put my hands in ice water. They also didn't want me to use my right arm because I might jostle the veins that the doctor had just spent hours connecting.
It was very weird looking down and not seeing my big belly anymore. It almost looked as though there just be a big gaping hole there because it was so small and flat! I expected my incision to stretch from hip to hip, but it actually wrapped around the side and almost to the back of each hip- that is one LONG incision! I had a cathetar put in during surgery on Wednesday and it wasn't removed till friday- they didn't let me get out of bed at all until Friday afternoon. The one plus is that I still had my pain pump all of that time so I would just push it every 20 minutes around the clock, then doze off for about 10-15 minutes. That was also helpful because I wasn't allowed to eat ANYTHING until Friday morning! Not even clear liquids! It was pretty brutal. Ice chips only. That was because during that time, I was still at risk for my flap to fail and in that case they would need to rush me back to surgery, and I would need an empyt stomach for that. Oh well- give me the demerol pain pump please! Also to ensure my breast flap was doing well, the nurse would come in every single hour with a tiny doppler and put it on my boob to make sure they could hear good blood flow. Friday it changed to every 2 hours.
I was in the hospital until Saturday morning. I still was not moving around well at all yet (did you read how long I told you my abdominal incision was?) but I needed to go home. I was so dang uncomfortable in that bed that I was going crazy! And overall it was a pretty good hospital with decent care except for the day nurse- I had her both friday and saturday- she wasn't too helpful at all. I knew I would have a decent amount of help at home and I could sit in my power lift recliner that was much more comfortable than the evil hospital bed!
Hospital food: Once I was finally allowed to eat food, I could eat anything I wanted. The hospital I was at had something called *room service* We could order anything we wanted from the menu any time we wanted between 7am-7pm, and they would bring it up in about 40 minutes. The food wasn't terrible, except for the pizza- ick!
The doctor came in and had me get out of bed and take my gown off. He then drew a bunch of lines all over me with a marker- on my tummy and both breasts. The hardest thing in reconstruction is getting the crease of the bottom of the boob right, so he had to make sure to match it up with my existing breast. The nurse came in and started my IV line. Usually by this point they give you meds to knock you out. This time, they waited until I was in the operating room, and moved over to the correct table. I know it didn't take long- I didn't even count at all! They said "think of a happy dream" BAM! I was out cold!
When I woke up, I wasn't in a great deal of pain- probably because they were using demerol instead of morphine. Back in August when I had my mastectomy, I wouldn't look at the bandages or what was beneath. In fact it was probably about a week or longer before I could bear to look. This time, I wanted to look as soon as I woke up! I was so excited! When I did look, I immediately started laughing! You may think that's an odd response but here is why- I had a tattoo on my abdomen. It was ugly and stretched out from 3 kids (really wasn't nice to begin with) it was a flower- I guess it sort of looked like a carnation. Well, I had discussed with the doctor the location and he felt that at least part of the tattoo would end up on the flap he would have to make somehow. Well, the flower ended up being smack dab in the middle- it looks like it is right where my areola would be! Oh man- funny doctor! It is really pretty awesome looking. Overall surgery took somewhere between 4 1/2- 5 hours. They expected it to take about 6, so less is good! When they first had me in recovery I was in a warm room. I don't remember feeling particularly uncomfortable but I know I remember them telling me they had to have the room warm, and if I needed to cool off, my only option would be to put my hands in ice water. They also didn't want me to use my right arm because I might jostle the veins that the doctor had just spent hours connecting.
It was very weird looking down and not seeing my big belly anymore. It almost looked as though there just be a big gaping hole there because it was so small and flat! I expected my incision to stretch from hip to hip, but it actually wrapped around the side and almost to the back of each hip- that is one LONG incision! I had a cathetar put in during surgery on Wednesday and it wasn't removed till friday- they didn't let me get out of bed at all until Friday afternoon. The one plus is that I still had my pain pump all of that time so I would just push it every 20 minutes around the clock, then doze off for about 10-15 minutes. That was also helpful because I wasn't allowed to eat ANYTHING until Friday morning! Not even clear liquids! It was pretty brutal. Ice chips only. That was because during that time, I was still at risk for my flap to fail and in that case they would need to rush me back to surgery, and I would need an empyt stomach for that. Oh well- give me the demerol pain pump please! Also to ensure my breast flap was doing well, the nurse would come in every single hour with a tiny doppler and put it on my boob to make sure they could hear good blood flow. Friday it changed to every 2 hours.
I was in the hospital until Saturday morning. I still was not moving around well at all yet (did you read how long I told you my abdominal incision was?) but I needed to go home. I was so dang uncomfortable in that bed that I was going crazy! And overall it was a pretty good hospital with decent care except for the day nurse- I had her both friday and saturday- she wasn't too helpful at all. I knew I would have a decent amount of help at home and I could sit in my power lift recliner that was much more comfortable than the evil hospital bed!
Hospital food: Once I was finally allowed to eat food, I could eat anything I wanted. The hospital I was at had something called *room service* We could order anything we wanted from the menu any time we wanted between 7am-7pm, and they would bring it up in about 40 minutes. The food wasn't terrible, except for the pizza- ick!
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Passing time waiting to go to the official pre-op room
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Wheeling me away to the OR!
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| Bundled up in my warm room and warm blanket |
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| Very happy about my pain pump |
