Today is reconstruction day. I last saw my plastic surgeon about a month ago and was told to start protein loading to help my body prepare to heal itself. And now here we are.
The surgery is called a DIEP flap procedure (http://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/breast_center/treatments_services/reconstructive_breast_surgery/deep_inferior_epigastric_artery_perforator_diep_flap.html) where she'll cut me from hip to hip, remove a football-shaped section of skin, tissue, and muscle and use that to reconstruct my chest. It's about a 6 hour surgery with four days in the hospital afterwards.
Initially I was told that it had a 4-8 week recovery so I figured I'd be back up and at 'em by four weeks out but my surgeon's PA popped that bubble. "Yeah, people who go back to work after 4 weeks usually only work part time. At a desk job." Got it. So, more like 6 weeks in my case.
On the up-side I come out of surgery this afternoon with new boobs, a tummy tuck, 4 new drains that look like grenades hanging off of me, and a walker that I'm going to mod for peak performance. Look out, IMC hospital unit. Here I come...
No comments:
Post a Comment