I was so happy to be home. And after a night with Loud and Snory I was very grateful for some quiet.
Here's the thing though, I hate sleeping on my back. And you can't sleep on your side or belly. I'm pretty sure that's why they give you painkillers - just to help you sleep. The pain has never been an issue with the surgery. It's more the discomfort. And sleeping on my back just adds to it. But fortunately the Olympics were on so I had something slightly interesting to watch for the first week of my recovery.
And for the first week after the surgery I had issues regulating my body temperature. I never had a fever (That would be bad), but I was either hot or cold and nowhere in between. Which made me clammy, which made me gross and stinky.
Now, my son desperately wanted to see Diary of a Wimpy Kid, so my husband took the kids while I napped. Now, I was told that I was allowed to shower and remove my dressings 48 hours after surgery. Stubborn, genius me decided that while they were out would be an awesome time to have that first shower. I couldn't lift up my arms so I decided to kneel in the bath with my drains resting on the side of the bath, and then just let the water run without the plug in and use a cup to wash myself.
So I got the dressings off and saw Frankenboobies for the first time. I wasn't sure what to expect, or how to react. During the reduction they cut off my nipple and moved it up 2 or so inches. There's a incision going down from the nipple to the base of my breasts, and then a 'semicircle' incision along the base of each breast. It was the drains that creeped me out the most.
Gingerly I managed to bathe myself. For the record, it's not a good idea - get someone to help you. I felt much better and a lot less stinky of course. Putting the compression bra on was OK, but the drains were so much more uncomfortable. One of the tubes rubbed on my skin just below the bra to the point where it made a blister.
It was HORRIBLE. After that I had to constantly have ice packs under my arms. I was just miserable. I hadn't been able to wash my hair, so the next day I gave up and had my husband help bathe me. We did it in the bath tub again, and he washed my hair, and was so gentle washing me and helping me as much as he could. He even got some gauze and placed it over the drains to make me as comfortable as possible. (You may want to purchase gauze and frozen peas to help you through this stage). The new gauze did help a lot.
When I say that the drain were evil, I mean it. They're held there by stitches and any time you move, they pull and it hurts, Horrible. So I just sat on the recliner or lay down with ice packs hoping to keep the area numb.
They hurt so bad that I actually chatted with several of my friends who are nurses because I was becoming convinced that they were infected. They weren't there were no signs of infection such as redness, red streaks, hot to touch, discharge or pussiness etc. Someone explained to me that my body saw it as a foreign object and was hurting to try to get rid of it.
And emptying those suckers. Gross. Just gross.
Anyway, other than the drains, I was just tired. I felt a little nauseous on and off for the first week which could still be from the anesthesia, and from the meds. And I'd be hungry and not be able to decide what I wanted to eat. My poor husband would ask me if I wanted about a million things and I didn't want any of them, so I would settle on a piece of buttered bread, a cheese stick...or ice cream. And I had to eat with my medications. Sometimes I was just ravenous and would eat everything in sight. Other times I wasn't hungry at all, but I was shaking and needed to eat....that's where I could stomach a poached egg on toast. It was as if I was pregnant again.
The pain was never too bad, but I was just plain uncomfortable. And pretty bored too....and my butt was squished like a pancake because I just couldn't get off it.
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