Tuesday, December 6, 2016

BoobNews: "Grody to the abs, dude" edition



I ended up spending five days on the Intermediate Care unit (IMC) at Seton after my surgery, spent this past weekend at home, and then headed over to my plastic surgeon's office yesterday for follow-up. Thank you to my sister who came in from Houston to perform chauffeur duties for me.

While I was there, my plastic surgeon's PA, Rachel, assessed how upright I'm allowed to stand for this week. Apparently I'm healing well enough that I can stand a little more upright without risking pulling my abdominal incisions apart. That meant I got to raise my bad-ass walker up by two more notches. Sure, the blacking-out made raising it up take a few more minutes, but sometimes coolness requires trade-offs in practicality. No one's gonna separate me from my speed-demon walker. I think I'll name her Louise. Although, honestly, Louise could use a cup holder, and maybe a basket, but I'm afraid they might create too much drag. Gotta stay streamlined.

As far as healing goes, I have to say that despite this surgery being much more extensive than the double mastectomy, the acute pain this time is much less. That's largely thanks to the drains being much less uncomfortable. That said, Rachel, was able to pull all four of the drains yesterday, and I'm still glad to have the dumb things out. While I was there, she also assessed the healing of my abdominal wound, my new belly button, and the incisions on my new boobs, and pronounced them all as great. She and my IMC nurses (all of whom were great - I highly recommend them for all of your reconstructive recovery needs) say that my wounds all look and are healing better than average. Woo! I love being an over-achiever!

So that brings us to the grody part. Those of you who aren't interested, thanks for reading this far and I'll keep you updated in the future. Those of you (fellow) weirdos who love to see medical/somewhat gross stuff, feel free to revel in my small abdominal incision...




Friday, December 2, 2016

BoobNews: "Vroom vroom" edition



I got home from the hospital today at around noon. The incision wounds to my abdomen, belly button, and both breasts all look really good and seem to be healing unusually well. I came home with all four drains still in place (2 for my abdomen, 2 for my chest) but the volumes draining to them are pretty low so hopefully we'll be able to pull most, if not all, of them out on Monday.

Meanwhile, the Percocets are doing their job pretty well keeping me reasonably comfortable. To walk around at all I have to use a walker, though, because I'm not allowed to straighten my body all the way for about three weeks. Otherwise, my internal and/or external abdominal stitches can pull apart. I don't think I want that adventure.

Since I have to use a walker though, I decided it needed to be pimped out. My fellow riders will notice the blacked-out look with pipe wrap on the headers, which adds +5 hp at the crank. That means I'm now faster than a Harley. Note, also, the bell on the handlebar. When you're moving this fast, you can't afford someone not noticing and pulling out in front of you. Revzilla stickers applied to look extra legit.

So I know you're probably intimidated, but who's ready to drag race this puppy?