Originally posted by: TwinkleToes77
It was only supposed to be an outpatient procedure but I wound up having to stay the night.. went in at 9:30 yesterday morning and I got home about an hour ago.
The precedure? I had a breast reduction. No pics.. yet
Too swollen to show any details anyways. I'm writing this in between my bouts of sleep from the meds they have me on. Overall it was an okay experience.. I'm in quite a bit of pain right now, the doctor says that should last about 2 days for the major pain. He took more than 2.5 lbs out of EACH breast. I can't wait to see what they will look like once the swelling goes down.
June 29th
Had my Dr's appt today. He said everything is looking great and if i can get on thie V.A.C. Therapy after I come back from my trip home to see my family it should close up almost immediately and then we can start looking at grafting and reconstructive surgery.
The second surgery really screwed up the shape of the breast.
I have taken more pics if anyone is interested. Not near as gruesome as the infection ones.. I promise. Infact, if you have seen the infection one, I really recommend seeing this new one to show how great an improvement there is.
PM if you wanna see.
June 26th
I've not been in the mood to update lately, though I suppose I could. The pain is almost non-existant atm, though it seems to come and go. The healing is under way but its a very slow process.. I was just evaluated today about having a special vacuum type machine inserted into the wound to help keep it clean and help the healing process move along quicker. Unfortunately there is a very long wait list for this machine. My area only has 10 machines available. Hopefully, one will become available before im fully healed.
No new complications.... unless you count being addicted to percocets.. but I am aware of the addiction which is a good thing.. so I requested help as soon as I noticed it.. I tried to stop cold turkey when my Rx ran out and I wound up going through withdrawal and suffering from insomnia, anxiety, and restlessness for a few days until I could get a hold of my doctor and explain what was going on. He had to refill my Rx so that we can ween myself off of the pills. I was told its very common to have this happen when someone's been on them so long.. and I was on them for 5 weeks.
Overall though, it's going well
Edit :
Oh forgot to mention.. because of the emergency surgery I wound up losing almost half a breast. Where the good healthy breast is still a C/D. The infected breast is now a B cup. I will have to have an implant to fix this later on when I go in for reconstructive surgery. At this point, that is far off though.
Edit #2:
I keep forgetting to mention things. I will be going down to the states to visit my family for the july holiday. I will be there for a week. My mom has made an appt for me to see her surgeon, as shes been telling him about my predictament. So I will take that as my second opinion.
At this point, I still fully trust my doctor. Things happen that cant be prevented. I dont believe he did anything wrong to cause this.. it was just a course of bad luck. I even told him that I was going south to see a specialist and he told me to go for it. I am quite happy with the shape of BOTH of my breasts except for the huge hole in one.. they both have a very lovely shape and I dont regret the surgery. Somedays I have my doubts.. but I dont regret it. A few months of discomfort is worth a lifetime of being back pain free.
June 15th
Well things have been going really well ever since the emergency surgery. I was on the IV antibiotic for 10 days. That wasnt too much fun. But it did the trick. My nurse has already come this morning, and with great news. I'm healing a lot quicker than expected. We have been using 2" packing ribbon @80cm worth to stuff the wound. Today, she could only get in 73cm!
I've been feeling really great lately too. The only day I didnt was when I had too much cheesey goodness and it upset my belly
Hooray to being on the road to recovery. Though it's still going to be a long road, atleast I know I've started the journey.
June 7
Just got home from emergency surgery to remove all the dead tissue and fat. I'm still pretty out of it so I'll update more later.
June 3rd
I know I update a lot but today something drastic happened. I went to my wound treatment at 9am and by 10am he had me sitting in the ER of the hospital that I had surgery in. Turns out that i have a very agressive infection that happened within the last 24 hours. Since I was at the wound clinic yesterday afternoon and didnt show any symptoms. I now have Cellulitis and am on an IV drip antibiotic. I have to have the drip FOUR times a day for the next week. So i got to come home with a lovely IV taped to all my arm hairs. I'm starting to second guess the decision for this surgery.
Oh yeah.. forgot to mention that when I got to the wound clinic I started leaking a massive amount of fluid out of my incisions that should have healed a while ago being as its been 3 weeks since the surgery.
May 29/06
I called the Dr's office today to ask for a refill on the percocets. He told me he wants me to come in right away, if at all possible. So i get there and he's extremely busy. Every seat in the waiting room is occupied. Show the receptionist my healthcard and she takes me right away back to a room.
Verdict: I'm losing the nipple. I will have to have reconstructive surgery in a few months once everything heals as best it can. My new nipple and areola will be made of thigh skin.
I still have to continue with the daily nursing. Yesterday it hurt so much that I broke down and cried. That was the first time I cried since BEFORE the surgery. That's how much it hurts. I get the pleasure of having to go today at 3pm. Lovely.. I can't wait :roll:
June 1st.. 3 weeks post-op
Today i had yet another follow-up with the surgeon. Things are not going well. He officially cut off my areola and nipple. It smelled of rotten flesh. I have a huge hole now in my right boob. It's really disgusting to see. I do think however, tomorrow when i go to the wound clinic im going to start taking pictures of the progress. A wound documentary.
Update: 2 days Post-OP
Well one nipple seems to have found its way back out of its hole.. but it keeps going back in.. They are starting to settle quite a bit so I'm pretty sure that this complication will fix itself. My follow up is on thursday.
Also.. I weighed myself and it's frightening how much weight a body can gain in fluids just from going through surgery.. I'm EASILY 20 lbs heavier coming out of the surgery than going in. No wonder I had a breakdown yesterday when I saw myself in the mirror. I was so bloated it was digusting.
1 week post-op..
Had my first follow-up today with the surgeon. He was pleased to see Nipple Left has decided to come back and join the real world. And he apologized for beating the $@#$ out of me. (I still look like i went 10 rounds).
Other than that he said im doing remarkably well. I also feel great. Haven't taken any pain meds in 2 days. And my back hasn't hurt since the operation. My skin is itching like crazy though. The Dr now has me putting polysporin on the incisions to help with scarring.. Nipple Right is still black and blue.
2 weeks post-op
This morning I woke up and went to take a shower when I noticed that Nipple Right(NR) has decided to turn black... So i made an immediate call to the dr's office and he informed me to come in right away. He was having his surgical clinic in the hospital today so it was good timing. I get there and he told me that i will probably lose my nipple. There seems to be quite a bit of bruising underneath it in the tissue and its blocked off circulation to the nipple.
Not to get too graphic but he basically disconnected the NR from 2/3 of the skin and then flushed it and squeezed as much fluid out of the breast as he possibly could.. He then stuffed it full of gauze and told me im not to work for the next 2 weeks and will be required to see him once a week until it's better. Plus I am to have a home health nurse come by daily to clean the wound. It hurts like a #$@#$@$@.
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I do have pics.. they are very graphic.. and i wont post the link here as they arent very SFW. But if you have a morbid curiousity... you know the drill.
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