Recovery 1/24 Wednesday

Well here I am again in recovery. It is so funny to find myself with the same JP drains but not quite the same incisions and mobility issues. I mean, this time I actually have more incisions, but ironically more mobility.
They not only accessed the sites through the diagonal incisions they had originally made with the mastectcomies but have also gone in the inframammary crease on both sides. So, now it makes sense to me why I might have more pain in those regions. Further, now I understand why I hadn't been feeling so swift on the right side in particular. I mostly have pain on the right side underneath where the rib cage and side of my trunk meet. I'm guessing that the reason I have more pain on that side than the left is due to the fact that I have more scar tissue due to the prior lymph node dissection on that side that made the prior surgery there more extensive than on the left side.
I find myself just kind of protecting, well kind of clutching, my right side in that area if I'm standing up or sometimes even sitting up becuase of the strain on those muscles. I definitely don't want to sit or stand up straight for that reason either. So, I know I'll have to work on that after this is healed. I wasn't sure what to expect with all of this, and didn't expect a second set of incisions, so yesterday I just couldn't figure out why I had pain there. Now after hving looked at the incisions while emptying the drains this morning, I get it. I've also learned that taking a 1/2 of a vicodin can be really helpful without making you feel so out of it pain wise. I only had a little pain meds in the hospital becuase those meds just make you so "buggy" is what I call it, where you feel like you're looking out of the eyes of a bug rather than yourself. They had given me some dilottid (spelling?) the night before to ease the pain from surgery and I was glad, but when they told me they could give me morphine instead I thought "oy" I don't want to do that, so I pretty much didn't do pain meds unlelss I really needed them.

As my sister Jenni eluded to in the earlier post, we had quite an event just trying to get them to draw blood for my pre-op labs. They had managed to get an iv going on my left hand, but the guy who was supposed to get the blood for the labs was trying to find another one up more by the inside of my elbow and was ouchly unsuccessful. Then the anesthesiologist jumped in and tried to help by getting some from a vein on my right foot since the lab guy didn't know how to do it and wouldn't, making lab guy pretty miffed because anesthesiologist trying to help me out. The vein in right foot only gives us about 1 1/2 tubes and then collapses..So, lab guy tries again this time where my hand connects to my wrist on the topside. OUch that hurt and was also unsuccessful. Oy. Then, the nurse who originally came in to put the iv in my hand came in and quietly was able to access a vein for them from my left arm while they were busy patching up my foot. Whew, they got what they wanted and the drama was over, but boy I have bruises to show for it. I wouldn't let them access my right side becuase of the risk of lymphedema. Since I already have some edema in my right hand, I certainly don't want to exacerbate that situation.
I don't know why I was so hard to access other than I was tired, cold, dehydrated, etc.. Oh well.
The funny thing was that in the middle of the night in the hospital, another guy came to draw labs, and after fending him off from the right side I told him about what had happened earlier in the day and he was able to get it on the first try. I was so grateful and told him such!
Okay so that was the drama with the blood but that's over thank God. One of the funnier things was that, as we were getting dressed to leave yesterday my sister kept finding little electrodes still on my body in about four places and some tape marks on my legs from where they tried to immobilize me on the operating table so that they coud move me from a prone to an upright position to check out their work. That part to me was really funny along with the fact that I still have some "markings" from where they drew on me prior to surgery since I can't get those completely washed off yet (it will take me a few tries I think) and betadine along my backside. Those are the funnier things though and Jenni helped me to clean up a bit as well as get dressed to drive home to the Remy's. I was glad that the ride was short becuase my side really hurt on the way here and I was happy to lay down and relieve the pressure.
Whew, well I'm sure that's a lot more than you wanted to know, but those are the details.
I'm emptying the drains twice a day and their output is about 50-60cc each at each time I empty them. That should decrease over the next few days. I'm set to go to the doctor's office on Friday for them just to check things out and make sure i'm healing okay. As for when the drains come out, who knows. I'll keep you "posted."
That's all for now. Just resting reading sleeping when I need to and slowly eating again.Thank you so much for your prayers!!!!!! I am so grateful for wonderful friends.
Love,
Julie

Still, I have far more arm mobility than I did before, so I'm not quite the penguin I was in the prior surgery, and I can make it up and down the stairs without any help. Already that is a huge leap over where I was before. I spent most of my time before in bed.