Recovery

One of the ornaments purchased on our mini-vacation

Gift from a dear friend

Christmas cactus from Shanna

Color changing glass

Bought several glittery gold shells for the flower room tree

Realtor dropped off front door wreath. Still don't like her

Candy shop window in Holland

Recovery is going more smoothly than expected, miracles of miracles. Surprisingly the breast that hurts the most is the one that had hardly anything done to it. He did remove some scar tissue, I think. All the information I got was second hand from Steve and things were lost in translation. The sides were recontoured somehow so I don't have this huge divot any more. It is very hard to tell anything right now as I am quite bruised and swollen. Maybe he downsized the mega breast to about half its original size?  I do look much more symmetrical. Again hard to tell. I still have my drain but at most 30 ml of fluid comes out in a 24 hour period. More serum now and less blood. I have 3 large sutures in the former mega breast: one completely underneath it, one going up the center perpendicular to the large suture. Then I have a circular suture around my nipple which bled through the first night but seems to have stopped. Once I figure out a way to keep all my sutures dry, I will finally take a shower. Saran wrapping my chest was suggested. Yesterday, I cut my opiate intake by half. Today I plan to take them less frequently supplementing them with ibuprofen. As the latter is tough on my stomach lining, I am upping the Prilosec. But as I am no longer taking aspirin (heart disease and cancer preventative) or drinking so maybe I really don't need to. Alcohol and opiates don't mix. Perhaps tomorrow I won't take opiates at all. They do have their side effects.

 

I walked around the neighborhood yesterday at what I believe was a good clip for 30 minutes. I felt fine. Running is out of the question as it will undo my sutures as is lifting more than 5 pounds. I did wash some heavy pans but had Steve lift them out of the soapy water to rinse them. He does not wash pans though I guess he did while I was taking Taxol as my nails were threatening to fall off. I do know from past experience that opiates make me move much slower. I would take them the weeks I was dosed with Taxol as it caused all sorts of muscle pain and I would walk significantly slower than the no drug weeks. I do seem to have plenty of energy though I am quite light headed. While on my walk, I had my phone. I suppose if I collapsed, hopefully my neighbors would have recognized me and got Steve. Or maybe they would drive right by like my stony faced next door neighbor. Really an especially unfriendly man. Tonight the new neighbor is having an open house in which 2/3 of the neighborhood are coming to so maybe I will finally meet people here. We will see if Stony Face shows up. I have met some nice people like the young couple on the other side of me who plowed out our driveway when we first moved in. Anyway, it should be fun to see the inside of their fancy house. This week it might be warm enough to ride my bike though I wouldn't do it on opiates. If I keep to smooth pavement, breast movement should be minimal.

 

I do welcome visitors. Shanna came over yesterday and later one of the moms stopped by.

u