Surgery and the first 48 hours after

Surgery day - Jan 28th

5am - wake and shine baby it is surgery day. So far still feeling good excited and only slightly nervous. Take my shower with the antibacterial soap as requested.
5:30-6:20 - everyone else wakes up, packing lunches for 2 days for S, cuddling both girls, getting everyone dressed, stuffies packed and the girls suitcase with clothing for the sleepover. During which time i down a large glass of water and 2 glasses of apple juice.
6:40 - Dropped the girls off at our Daycare with all there stuff, lots of hugs and kisses with the girls oh and i downed a bottle of water . I was certainly not going to be dehydrated. However it did cause a stop at a gas station to use there bathroom with all that liquid :)
8:10 - Signed in at the hospital, got into the ever sexy hospital gown and a housecoat they provided all jewellery removed and all clothes except my socks. and i got to put on great booties the hospital provided. Went to the recovery area to see the nurse on duty confirm all my info again answer last question, a timeline provided.
8:40 - went to the waiting area where Garnett was waiting for me and we sat down to wait for just over a hour to be called in for surgery, meeting everyone taking part in the surgery and getting prepped.

By this point i was still pretty collected a bit nervous but pretty impressed with myself on keeping it cool. I never had the nerve to take photos of myself  without my bra on for before photos but i will share what i have and will do comparison in 3 months of what i look like now in a bra and also with that same shirt.

Not the best view but i can guarantee you will see a difference

Double chins are still there working on that :)

Most of the time the boobs did not stay fully in the bra.

These photos were taken back in June 2013

9:45- 5ish
 I was called in said my goodbyes with hubby and then was moved from recovery area where i had to take off my glasses which i absolutely need to see everything is fuzzy, to the little wait area to be brought into the surgery room. i met my doc assistant who preformed all the markings/measurements on me. Now i have to tell you it is quite awkward to have someone who looks younger than you and not your husband moving your breast around to mark them is weird and on my part hilarious i had some inappropriate chuckles over it... yes nerves took over. I was wheeled into the operating room right on time. And from that point on the doc was fantastic, he was caring and bedside manner was warm and comforting a complete difference from the office (which is what i had read about when i did actually look the doc up) and it certainly helped calm me. He checked out the markings and made some improvements because of the previous breast reduction. They told me i would be in surgery for about 2 1/2 hours they were putting some things on my legs to help with circulation for being out for so long. And then i was put under. The surgery took almost 3 hours, i remember waking up in the area they take you after surgery before bringing you to recovery. I asked for my glasses and was told i was not there. Then there was nausea meds given to me and at some point there was pain med given to me as well, then some more nausea meds. I was in and out alot during this time. Right before i left this room to go to recovery (around 2 pm) the doctor came in to check on me and to check on my breasts noticed that both nipples were pretty blue so told me to make sure to massage them at least once a hour to help with oxygen, and then i passed out again. I woke up after being in recovery for a bit i remember asking for my glasses and book as i was feeling quite alert, i was offered a beverage and some cheese and crackers to see if i could stomach it. I managed two little bites of cracker and it was all i could do to not get sick. More nausea meds followed and as alert as i might have felt i was falling asleep every 15 mins or so for 15-30 mins each time that was the first hour of recovery. After that it got a bit better, now i remember at some point the nurse had come in closed the curtain around to check the dressings when i remembered what the doc had said i swear she must have thought i was on crack lol but the nipples were still blue so massaged i did, no pain at all thanks to those wonderful pain meds. From their like i said i started being able to stay awake longer, had a couple glasses of gingerale to help with nausea, eventually got dressed went to the bathroom (very wobbly walking my balance was completely off with the loss of boob). Sat down in a lazy boy and continued to drift in and out a bit by that time Garnett was allowed in to see me. Took about another 30 mins before we were allowed to leave.

Tried eating around 7 or 8 that evening i was not hungry at all and i vomited about half of the soup up. Took a gravol pill some extra strength tylenol and we both went to bed. I slept on the lazyboy that night and it was painful, i was up every couple of hours to get more tylenol. but tylenol covered the pain. Now throughout the evening i kept getting leaks of blood if i moved around to much.

As a funny side note at 1:45 that night my cat Doggy decided to drop a present on my lap, yep a dead mouse (thankfully it was dead), that created a large leak from throwing the mouse outside. What lengths our pets will go to say they love us *sigh*

Jan 29th

Not to bad of a day, painful still only used Tylenol and not the extra prescription they had given me and i slept alot all in the lazyboy. Though that night Garnett got home and had our girls with him i was so happy to see them. Missed my munchkins to pieces and while i was so thankful for them to not see me the evening after the surgery still missed the time with them. S who is almost 6 now understands that she had to be very careful with mommy, she showed me the card she had made for me and the picture she did for me so i would feel better. And little K who is almost 2 1/2 well she was gentle that day ... but easy to forget that i was very sore. But still we got them fed and chatted then it was time for their bed and another very early night for both Garnett and I. I tried sleeping in bed with two pillows on either side of me both as a barrier and to help keep me elevated a bit as my arms were pretty sore too, i lasted till about 2 in the morning then headed to the lazyboy due to pain.

Oh also took my first shower it was quick but delightful, wasn't able to wash my hair but was able to soap up most of my body.

Now throughout this day there was no more leaks but what had started happening was my left nipple started bleeding quite a bit, i googled it and came across a neat blog http://newboobs.livejournal.com/ which explained it was happening through my milk ducts and further searching confirmed can often happen.

Throughout this day i was still taking tylenol every 4 hours or so for pain relief.

Jan 30th

This day started off bad, i was waking up every couple hours throughout the night. I got up at 5:30 to help prepare the girls for school/daycare doing what i could. However i was feeling very faint and like i was going to throw up. This ended up staying with me throughout the day and by late afternoon my pulse started going up. I slept alot that day aside from all the other symptoms i was experiencing my pain was starting to go down a bit, did not have as much tylenol.

Now my one nipple was still bleeding a bit throughout the day i finally got smart and put a pad to help wisk away the blood.

By 8 at night things were finally back to almost normal my pulse was still elevated a bit but everything else was fine no more faintness or nausea.

Went to bed around 10 that night and was able to stay in bed all night, still broken sleep but it was a bit better


Coming up

Tomorrow I will be posting about what i started to notice was going wrong, there will be some pictures of what my breast looked like on the 31st and what they looked like on the 3rd of Feb. From there you will be almost caught up posts wise to where i am now and what i am dealing with

Pre-Op

The meeting

Dec 18th was my first meeting with the surgeon to see if he would take me as a patient and do my breast reduction. i had been impressed as i got a apt within 2 weeks of finding out i had been referred to him from the original doc whose waiting list i had been on. I had done no advance check on the doctor (did not occur to me at the time). I arrived at the office which was gorgeous and very relaxing, had maybe a 20 min wait then was shown to his nurse who handled the initial questions as to why i was looking for a secondary breast reduction and going over the concerns with me. She was fantastic very personable, easy to talk to and very comforting. The doctor came in after i had removed my shirt and bra had on a lovely robe on. And it was like a glass of water to the face. He was abrupt and very to the point. He made it seem like he would not do the breast reduction without me paying for extra liposuction for the fat.... He was a artist and was very clear about that, also seemed pretty disgusted with my breast with the nipple size from the last surgery and that the nipples were not close to straight and definitely not perky ( well trying to nurse two girls never helped them lol). Be he was honest and would answer my questions as to why it had to be a specific way. He listened when i told him of the issues i had had with my previous surgery and the knots (i forgot to write about that on the last post but all of the knots had become infected, badly, and i at the wise age of 15/16 decided not to go to the hospital but dug them out myself and had to get the knots out and the puss ... it was horrible but once i had done it the knot area healed up well) and stated he would use a different type then was normally used just incase. Then he had his nurse come back in and we had a talk about the costs to me as long as OHIP covered the breast reduction for the extra items he was talking about (lipo and bit of a lift at the same time) it was going to cost us $3900 plus taxes .... GULP ... I stated for now to go ahead to make sure it would be covered and if it was during that time we would discuss if we were willing to pay the extra costs

Needless i had left the apt very confused not sure what i was going to do, we had the savings for it, but its still hard to wrap your mind around spending that much on your boobs when it would not normally be needed ... Garnett and I had many conversations about it. I was so afraid to be referred to another doctor and get on a different waiting list when i had waited so long already plus my back was very bad by this time, i could not sit on the floor without being able to lean back and even then that would hurt, it was hard to do dishes and fold laundry i had gotten to the point of using my absolutely amazing sports bra (moving comfort - Juno) to be able to do more that 20 mins at a time and even then it would still hurt just not as much. Eventually my husband said to me that it did not matter about the money we had plenty set aside but how did i feel about the doctor. While i was still feeling pressured into the money part i appreciated the way the doctor had been with being a straight shooter in his answers and i really liked his nurse and staff (they are the ones that won me over). That i wanted to go with him.

I still had to wait till Jan 18th when i heard the message on my voicemail that OHIP had approved me and to call back if i was interested in going forward with it. I called them on the Monday Jan 20th they were not in the office on Mondays so called back on the Tuesday and got the best news of all that they had a cancellation where it was the right timing for a breast reduction, I accepted the timeline right away and from that point till the 28th of Jan there was something every day pretty much for getting ready for the surgery.

Normally there is much larger timeframe for all of this to be completed buy what it looked like for me:

Tues Jan 21st - got the news surgery was one week later, had to talk to work about time off and what i needed to do from there.
And panicking about what to do about the girls the day of the surgery, multiple calls and texts regarding what to do.

Wed Jan 22nd - Meeting at the office with the nurse going over all the info again, signing all the releases and going through any questions i had with the releases and any concerns i had. And paying for the extra parts he had been requesting to do.
 More talk with work confirming and sending off to our Short Term Disability department for the request of time off

Thurs Jan 23rd - talked with the hospital to book a official meeting to confirm the info that had been sent to the hospital thankfully because of my history i was able to just do it over the phone and it was booked for Friday morning.

Fri Jan 24th - Spoke with the hospital no big deal just confirming the questionnaire that i had to fill out and to confirm that i would get a call from the hospital Monday at some point to tell me what time the surgery would be for the next day and to confirm no eating after midnight Monday night when i could stop having fluids.
And again talking with work as i had not heard back from Sheppel who deal with our STD, was confirmed i would get the call by Monday morning at the latest.

Sat and Sunday were to me and my family

Mon Jan 27th -on my way to work got a call from Sheppel from the person who was to be my caseworker approving a full two weeks offs for recovery (woohoo) and getting me the forms by email that i needed to fill out by both myself and the doc only after the surgery had been completed.
And about two hours into work i got a call from the hospital confirming my surgery time was for 10:15 the next day i was to show up at the hospital for 8:15 and i was to stop having fluids by 6:45 but before the cut off i had to have at least 2 cups of water.

Support

Now i have not talked about this at all but the only people that knew about the surgery was my husband, my sister (as she is thinking of having one as well however she needs to loose some weight before our doc will send of a referral), my husbands mother (trying to figure out if she could watch the girls the night of the 28th) and my daycare provider. And two people at work one as she is the liaison with Sheppel and helped me get everything in order and one a friend. Everyone else any other family members (my own mom, stepdad or my daddy), colleagues and close friends i said nothing. I can be a very personal person and also find it very awkward to say certain things.

Anyway due to things our daycare provider who is a FANTASTIC lady (from day one we are so lucky to have her in our girls lives) ended up keeping the girls and having a sleepover with her kids. And super thankful that she did i was pretty useless for a full 36 hours but more on that in the next post, and the start of some photos

Breast reduction - a different type of post

Wow its been almost a full year since i have posted on the blog, i often think of it but always make excuses. Just once quick update and then i will get into the title subject. My weight as of Feb 2nd 2014 is 189. So a 6 pound difference from last year. It has gone up to as high as 196 with a normal weight of 193 ish ... And then this happened...

Breast Reduction

So i don't think i ever posted this on the blog but back with K was only 8 month old ish (June/July 2012) and i had lost 30 pounds at that time i had started getting alot of back pain again doing normal things and while working out. At one of my littlest ones check ups i talked with my doctor about having a breast reduction completed as we had previously discussed ...

A referral was sent out and i did not hear anything back till Nov 2013 that the doctor i had been referred to was retiring and i would need to find another doctor. I was referred to a Cosmetic Surgeon this second time, by Dec 18th 2013 i had a consult, Jan 18th I found out i had been approved by Ohip (Canadian health care) and on Jan 21st i got a call that a cancellation had happened and they could fit me in a week later. Jan 28th!!!! I was crazy excited and nervous, this was to be my second breast reduction with my first having been when i was 15/16 yrs old. The next series of posts will be over my experiences and difficulties i have had. There will be some pretty graphic pictures but for people that are thinking of doing a breast reduction or are currently going through it hopefully what i have gone through will help. And once all of this is done i am looking to bringing this back to a weight loss journey and some of the races i have already signed up for :)

The Past

So as i mentioned in the last part this is my second breast reduction and i want to talk a little bit about what i remember from half a lifetime ago.

I cannot remember what age for sure i was when it happened either 15 or 16 yrs old and it was summer cause i remember not wearing a shirt for a couple of days as back then i was taped up quite differently. I do not remember much of that time... I remember having my doctor take a Polaroid picture and sending it off for approval as i was quite a bit younger then they would normally have taken. At the time i was probably 145-150 pounds and i was a size F with a lot of back issues. It was approved i have no idea how long it took me from that point to getting to a doctor I feel it was within a 6 month period but i could be completely wrong.

I remember the pre op meeting where i was asked if i smoked (at that time i did but I think my mom was with me and i lied saying no as she had no idea ... so stupid) i remember being told that i might not have nipple sensation, that i might not be able to breastfeed any children i might have and many other things. At that time i did not care (and even to this day i am glad that i did it for the relief and normalcy it provided in my last years of high school and even on to college not to mention my confidence) we went ahead. I remember things as pretty spotty from the surgery till my wrappings came off a couple weeks later (it was a gauze and tape bra that i had one till my post op apt very different that this time). I was on T3 at the time and i remember a lot of pain.

At the end of it all i had gone from a F down to D and i was ecstatic, i had lost a lot of sensation anywhere there was scars probably a 1/2 inch to either side i had no sensation, my nipples had none at all. i also had huge nipples like the size of small pancakes. but i did not care it was pure freedom.

In the years since then sensation never returned, the only time i got a bit of sensation in my nipples was when my girls were born and i was attempting to nurse (both times i could not nurse long and my girls were not getting enough nutrition as my hind milk would/could not come through). Over the years i went from the D to a overflowing 40 DDD at the beginning of my weight loss, even at my lowest (183 pounds) I was down to a overflowing 38 DD because of the last surgery my breast were a very large surface area which made fitting bras a horrible experience.


My next post will be on the lead up to the surgery... Then the one after that will catch you up on post surgery and one difficulty i experienced that i hopefully will have news on.