2 weeks later

Wow, it's been 2 weeks since the exchange surgery.  I don't seem to be very happy with them though.  Most days I don't like them, but here and there they seem ok.  They still seem smaller. I have been putting my bra on when I go out and there is a good amount of room in the bra.  They seem a little lumpy and I don't know if that's normal either.  I was pretty depressed about it for a while but I am not any longer.  I was supposed to see my PS yesterday to have the stitches taken out but after 30 minutes waiting in the waiting area I asked how much longer and they couldn't give me an answer.  Something had come up and they were way behind.  I couldn't wait because I was heading out of town with my kids so we rescheduled for 2 days from then.  What can you do?

So, I will talk with her tomorrow.  If she agrees with what I'm saying and we need to exchange them again, I am ok with doing that as long as its after school gets out.  I don't want to miss anymore work.  If it's early July, I can just relax at home.  Maybe they are still setting but something tells me that one size bigger would fix a lot of the problems.  I know I should have gone one more up.  My advice...follow your instincts.

The Reveal

Well, I just took the bandages off and showered.  I'm not sure how I feel.  They seem small.  But I was so used to those hard rocks inside.  They are squishy.  I still have stitches but they seem a little bumpy.  I don't know if that will change.  I just have to trust my PS.  And I need to remember that it has only been 2 days.  My fear is that I will have to have another surgery to correct things.  I don't want to have to do this again.

First day home

As I said, I was home by 2pm. I had to use the bathroom so I went right in there and noticed that it was really cold in the house. Turns out the heat wasn't on. If you know upstate, NY, you know you need heat in February. Paul tried everything. Luckily we know a friend who owns a local heating/cooling place so Paul spoke with him on the phone and he sent a guy out. He got the heat working eventually. But it made for a rough time for me. I was so tired from the whole experience but I can't sleep when I am freezing so I just made do. I went up to bed early that night and slept well, without hard rocks inside. I took pain meds last at 12:30am and felt fine when I woke up at 6am to make sure the girls were up for school. I decided to take ibuprofen instead of the prescription and that worked fine. My breasts were a little sore when I moved around but I felt really good. Everyone left for the day and the hospital called to check on me. They reminded me, as did all of my wonderful friends, that even though I felt good, that I need to rest and not do anything so I can heal. So, I did exactly that. I watch a lot of the tv shows that I had recorded. One of my dear friends brought over a huge lasagna with all the sides for dinner and that was delicious. I went up to bed and watched more TV and didn't take any pain meds. It's now day 2 at home and I just woke up for the day. No need for pain meds. Today I can take the bandages off and shower. I am really nervous about it. I can feel that they are soft and that makes me happy. But what if they are too small? That is my biggest fear right now. I will let you know what happens. Stay tuned...

Post surgery in the hospital

I woke up to hear a lovely woman telling me we were all done and that it went well.  I became aware that I was in the post op recovery area.  I then became aware that I was very nauseous and sore.  I told the nurse and she gave me meds in my IV for the nausea.  It worked immediately.  But then I was focused on the pain.  I have a fairly high pain tolerance so I was concerned and told her.  She didn't want to give me pain meds until I ate something so I dealt with it.  She gave me some ice chips because my throat was very sore and dry from the breathing tube. The guy who wheeled me down earlier saw me and commented that they sure did a number on my hair, which was a mess.  The pony tail holder was almost out.  I was able to use my left arm to it out but my right side was in pretty serious pain.  Anyway, he wheeled me back to a room down the hall from where I started out on floor #3.  The nurse immediately got me out of the bed and into a chair.  Sitting up relieved the pressure on my chest tremendously so I started feeling better.  She brought me saltines and water and then gave me the hydrocodone.  Within 15 minutes I felt fine.  Paul came in and then she told me I could get dressed.  I used the restroom and got dressed fairly easily.  There was a woman on the other side who obviously had also just had some sort of surgery but she was very nauseous.  They said they had already given her a lot of medicine for it.  As I was packing up, we heard her vomiting pretty badly.  I felt terrible for her.  The nurses told her that they think she needed to spend the night there.  I was thankful that wasn't me.

The nurse gave us a folder with after care info. inside and the wheelchair was brought up and I was discharged.  I was in my house at 2pm.  Not bad.

exchange surgery day

Yay.  I woke up on Feb. 4th at 6am excited !!!  I felt fine, even though I somehow pulled a back muscle a few days prior.  But even that felt fine.  I showered and got dressed and Paul and I drove the girls to school.  We arrived at the hospital at 8am promptly.  This hospital was much smaller and quieter, which was nice.  The staff was lovely and they helped us and brought us where we needed to go. We were taken into a room where the nurses took my vitals and put the IV in.  My temperature was a perfect 98.6.  Oh, by the way, I threw out the CVS thermometer that told me I did NOT have a fever in January.

So, we waited in the room for about 45 minutes.  They had a tv so we watched the news.  I was surprisingly calm.  At some point it did hit me that there are people who don't come out of surgery so I told Paul that if I die, any info he will need is on my phone somewhere.  Haha.  If you know me at all, that makes sense to you.

Well anyway, I was told the surgery was scheduled for 10am so at 9am I was taken to the OR floor and Paul had to leave and get a beeper and wait in the waiting area.  It again was pretty quiet there. But I didn't have my phone or a tv so I was stuck in my own head.  I was starting to get a little nervous when suddenly anaesthesia came.  Like 3 of them.  They kept asking all the same questions, which made me laugh.  Everyone was so nice though.  And then finally my PS came in.  I really like her.  She marked my chest up and we talked about how sick I was, etc.  Then they told me they were giving me some happy juice for my ride into the OR room. It made for a fun ride.  I remember looking around the hallway.  We arrived at the OR and there were lots of new people in there.  They all introduced themselves but I don't remember much.  I was moved onto a very small operating table and I'm not sure if I said it outloud or not, but I was wondering what they do with a larger person because the table was so narrow.  Anyway, that was the last thought I recall.

Surgery week...again

So, this surgery was scheduled for a Wed.  That would leave me 2 days of work to get it all together.  I work in a school as a school counselor and February is a very paperwork intensive month for us.  We also have a week break the 3rd week of the month.  My plan is to return to work after the break, so I had a lot to do in 2 days.

Sunday night, Superbowl Sunday actually, and my oldest daughter's 17th birthday, we had one of the biggest snow storms we have had in a while.  While I was excited about a possible snow day the next day, I was stressing out.  Well, we had a snow day.  Oh well.  We even had a 2 hour delay the next day, so I had 2 less hours at work to get it all done.  Somehow, I think I did what I needed to do and I left work for the day excited for surgery in the morning.  I was told to be there at 8am.

Exchange surgery week

So my surgery was scheduled for Jan. 9.  On Jan. 3rd I woke up with a terrible cold.  Everyone around this area seemed to be getting sick and it finally got to me.  I tried my hardest to stay healthy but it didn't work.  I rested as much as I could.  I went to work for my final 4 days.  I was planning on taking 2 weeks off because my PS suggested that due to working in a school.  I had a ton to get done at work so I was busy.  But I felt terrible.  The cold was getting worse and everyone kept asking me if I was going to be able to have the surgery.  I was determined to get better.  What I didn't do though was take some days off.  I told the nurses who called from the hospital and I spoke to a nurse at my PS office.  The big question was did I have a fever.  My thermometer never read more than 99 degrees and was often much lower.  I felt like I had a fever, but it wasn't showing up, so I told them I did not have a fever.  I was told to be at the hospital at 6am on Jan. 9th.  I woke up feeling worse than ever with ear pain.  It was snowing out so my husband drove me to the hospital.  We both had a feeling we wouldn't be staying.  I finally got into the pre-op area and they took my temperature. Surprise, I had a fever.  My PS arrived and we talked and she explained the dangers of surgery with a fever.  We decided to postpone it.  I actually wasn't even that sad because I felt so terrible.  I got home and when my primary doctor's office opened I told them what happened and made an appointment.  I then called the PS office and they told me that they had an opening on March 27th.  I was distraught.  The thought of having to wait all that time to get those hard rocks out of me was unbearable.  I begged her to find something else.  She found an opening on Feb. 4th at a different hospital.  That worked for me.  So, that gave me a few more weeks.  No problem.

I ended up with a sinus and ear infection that lasted for quite some time.  I stayed in bed that entire weekend and took that Monday off as well.  I lost hearing in the ear for a while so about 10 days before the surgery I went to see and ENT to make sure the infection was gone. It was and she said I was cleared for surgery.  Yay!!!