Recovering At Home

Once I was home I was feeling really good. I had a surreal amount of emotions and every time that I took my bandage off, I just couldn't believe my eyes. Christi made sure that I was eating and taking my four medications. My best friend Misty came over to visit and we had pizza for dinner. I was flying high on cloud nine until I woke up Sunday, extremely sick. I couldn't eat or drink anything. I was in and out of the bathroom constantly. I tried taking the nausea pills, but it wasn't helping. Of course this was the day that some more of my friends stopped over. I appreciated David and Logan coming over along with my other best friend Annie, even though I didn't even socialize with them. Eventually I broke down and had Christi call Dr. King (He had given us his personal cell phone number). Christi told him what was going on and he said to throw all the medications out and he would fax an anti-nausea prescription right away. Unfortunately it was a suppository, but it worked! Everything was going good again. I started showering every other day. Christi had to help me because I didn't have much range of motion with my arms. I was very scared to shower, but I felt phenomenal afterwards! As Friday approached I found some hard spots in my chest. I immediately called and it didn't seem to have an infection or feel warm so I decided to just wait until my two week checkup. When Monday rolled around Dr. King's nurse called and said he wanted me to come down if I could so he could check everything out. I got to the office around quarter to two in the afternoon and he came in and examined me. He started to scrape and peel the adhesive off my incisions. He literally did this with a scalpel and it was pretty painful. He then felt the hard spots and was pretty sure it was just swelling, but to be safe he stuck a needle in the side of my chest and moved it all around to make sure there was no fluid built up. Turns out he was right and it was just swelling so he gave me some more bandages and took the stitch out of my arm pit. I was then on my way home.

My next appointment was Monday October 8th. Up til this date I began to be more self-sufficient, started going on walks with Christi and Denali, our puppy. As I showered more of the remaining adhesive would slowly come off. I moisturized everyday to help with this. On Monday I made the trip down to Middleton to see Dr. King. He was super impressed with how I was healing. Some of my stitches hadn't dissolved so he had to pull and cut them off. Only one of them started to bleed. He then told me that because I was going on my fourth week I needed to start massaging my incisions. The purpose of this is to help the skin heal together better and to help smooth the scars. He said I had to push pretty hard and he began doing it. It hurt so bad. He showed me how to do it and we could literally feel the scar tissue popping and breaking apart. He said that that was a very good sign, even though it felt really weird. I then had to get some after photos taken and he said I no longer had to bind or bandage my chest! I scheduled my next appointment for December tenth and walked out of the office just wearing my polo!!!!

So everyday now I massage my incisions, continue to moisturize, and plan to start using some scar medicine. Today, October tenth, marks four weeks since my surgery. I'm a little sore and almost have my full range of motion back. The hardest for me is to reach up above my head. As for my pain I only take ibuprofen. I still have swelling on both sides which can take up to six months to actually settle. Even with the swelling, I couldn't be happier. My chest is unbelievably flat! It feels so good to not have the tight binder on. It just feels so right!

I will try to get some photos up next. I warn you that I will show the whole process including before and afters. Consider this your warning!