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