One Week Post Op Update

I am here for my one week post op update, and it's good! I am having challenges, no doubt, but I see a noticeable difference every day, in positive ways!

Let's talk about sleep. The first few days I was on pain meds, and let me tell you I didn't realize how loopy I was when they released me last Friday until a few days later. LOL. I wasn't apparently making much sense (so I was told). The first 5 days sleeping, pretty easy. Sleeping on my back and elevated, like before. Super sucks but it is par for the course. Every. Single. Time. I hate sleeping on my back.I am glad that this is it and when I am healed I will be sleeping on my stomach once and fore all! I was sleeping on the couch because I found that was the most comfortable spot for me to not only sleep, but then to be able to get myself up. The other night I was sleeping on my side. I naturally will gravitate to this position knowing I can't sleep on my stomach just yet. Last night I slept in the guest room to have the whole bed to myself, and Madison decided to sleep by me which was sweet). I went back to the routine with sleeping with my maternity pillow thinking that would be more comfy for me too. Well. I didn't sleep good and had the hardest time trying to roll over to get comfy laying on my side. Ya. Not good times. This struggle is real, all over again and I am not digging it.

On another note, every day I can move better. Sitting up is by far the hardest thing for me to do. I do the best I can, and I am sure if there was a camera on me, we would all be laughing at how stupid I look. Listen, I am fine with that. Whatever I have to do to sit up is what I do. I can wait until my stomach muscles are stronger. It really is the pits trying to deal with that bullshit.

I have been wearing a compression bra and a binder. Today is my last day! Hooray. I dont' know if I will miss them or not to be honest. Showering is getting noticeably easier every day to. Bending over is a challenge, and although I am slow moving, I feel like I can bend better every day. I only do it when I have to though. I have been laying around all week not doing shit, sleeping 12-14 hours a night, and I think it's all for the betterment of myself on this final healing journey.

Let's talk about what my body looks like. OMFuckingG! I have bruises the size of cantaloupes in a few places on my body. Christ. I have some near my boobs too. They are big and nasty and are going to take a long long time to heal. How long? I don't know, but now that we are in fall and pool season is over, who cares. I have until next summer to give a fuck. Everything in due time. I am still swollen too so I can wait to see as the time goes on and I shrink, what the final outcome will be. I am super optimistic, I'll expect to be completely happy at the end of the recovery road.

The next thing for me to consider is if I want to do 3D nipple tattoos (if you've never seen a 3D nipple tattoos, seriously google it, this shit is amazing)! I have not yet decided and I have time to think about it as my PS wants me to wait 3 months to give my new incisions time to heal. So while I ponder that...............I'll be back when I am back with more good stuff!

Done......Done and Done!

It's time for me to make note in the record books. I have finally finished my cancer surgeries! WooHoo! The last 2 just took place on September 22, 2023, just 364 days after my first major surgery with my double mastectomy. It's all wrapped up in less than a year. Incredible. Just incredible! I am ecstatic to be done with this part of my journey.

So its been about 48 hours since I got home from the hospital; how am I feeling? Alright. Not horrible and not great. To be expected. Am I sore? Oh yes. I am sore, no hiding that. I move around really good sometimes, and other times, not so much. I have been sleeping pretty good and that in itself is great! I think that'll help me heal faster than anything right now. I have decided to sleep on the couch for several reasons, and it's working out perfect. I can get up and down by myself (my bed is way too high to try to climb into), and I have lots of pillows to support me as I have been having to sleep almost sitting up. It is the most comfortable way believe it or not.

I have a binder around my stomach and a compression bra on. I have not seen what I look like just yet, as it's not time for the unveiling at this point. From the outside and not being able to see the up close details, I think I will look great when it is all said and done. I have some horrible bruising going on right now, but that's the least of my concerns, and I was told that was to be expected.

I am doing work around showers, and so far so good with them too. At least it's temporary and I feel like I can get clean every day, change my clothes and smell decent. Lol. 

My surgeries went well I was told. When I came to out of anesthesia, I was so loopy, so tired and not with the program at all. I could barely keep my eyes open to talk to the recovery nurses. So I feel like I probably missed a lot of what I was told, but I have nothing concerning me at the moment. I had some minor bleeding in my vaginal area as that where my ovaries were removed from. Interesting. I didn't know that's how they were going to come out since the surgery was laparoscopic. I have learned new things with each step I take through this. Good stuff though.

I am beyond happy top have these surgeries over with, to start getting my life back on track to do all the things I want to do, maybe the things I haven't been able to do because of chemo and all that shit, but not anymore. Once I heal from these surgeries, I am going to hit the ground running.

It's Almost That Time

It's almost that time, time for the last of my cancer surgeries! WooHoo! 10 days to go........pre op appts have been completed, so now it's just time to sit tight and wait....

I had my pre op appt with my PS and he went over all the areas he is going to "fix". Honestly from what he told me, I cannot wait to see what the final finished product that will be my new body, turns out to be! It all sounds great!! He assured me this will have the lowest amount of healing time (yeah!) and also the easiest. Fucking A! Save the best for last! He said I have two weeks of healing time and that's it, Wow!! After the two week period I can resume all normal activities. After all the shit I have been through over the last year and a half, the best is ye tot come, I mean, aside from being cancer free!! So do you want to know what he is going to do? I have "dog ears" on my right breast that he will remove, along with one near each hip where my drains were. He will also revise the scars on my flaps on my breasts, remove the scar tissue where I had my port, and fix my lower belly. He is not doing a scar revision on my stomach however. It's fine. It'll heal and be colorless in due time. 

I also asked him about my belly button and why I had to pack it all this time and why it closed and what's going to happen with all that. Simple and totally feasible explanation I should have thought of on my own, but didn't. The hole is where my original belly button was. Despite him removing the skin, the belly button was still underneath that skin. Right. Because it was an open wound so to speak, it needed to heal from the inside out in order to avoid an infection. Ah-ha! Yes, makes so much sense. And that's done, so no belly button it is. Now it's really confirmed. Ok, good enough.

I know my oophorectomy surgery should take about 15 minutes in total. Insanity. My OBGYN is using a new robot that he said is perfect for my surgery. Awesome. Then my revision surgery should be about an hour. Nice! I will go home the same day; no nurses will have to take care of me this time. I will have to wear a compression band for a few days and also a compression bra for a few days. Not too shabby.

I also already went to the hospital and had my pre op crap all done too, so now I am playing the waiting game. Only 10 more days to go..........then adios mother fucking cancer bullshit! I can't wait!

I'm Late............So Sorry, I Am Here

Well fuck me, time is getting away from me lately. Better late than never and here I am for an update. What's going on? Hmmmmm.........stuff and things. Lol. Nothing major to report, fortunately.

I met with my oncologist today. My blood work results didn't come in in time for my office visit, so I am waiting on a call from them. Hopefully no news is good news, and therefore I won't get a phone call. I haven't noticed any substantial changes, so I am guessing everything is still in line. Fingers crossed. 🤞

I have noticed something new, a few weeks ago and wanted to talk about it, and then kept waiting and waiting.....ugh. Her I finally am. When I did my last surgery almost 3 months ago, there was tissue and skin from my stomach that were added to my breasts. For the longest time, I didn't notice the stretch marks within the flaps in my breasts, then one day I looked in the mirror, as I had several times in the past, and bam, noticed them, how funny I thought that all this time I didn't see that, and now I'm noticing it. Granted there's been a lot of changes to my body over the last year and a half, but still, you think I would see that. Then this.......because the skin was taken from my lower stomach, not only are there stretch marks on that skin, but also peach fuzz! Like WTF?!? So funny to me, again, a delay in noticing the peach fuzz of hair that is in the middle of both my breasts! I know it won't be there long term or to stay........with the flaps being removed with the next surgery, that means the stretch marks and peach fuzz go too! Nice!! 😊

An update on my belly button, not belly button. What? WTF does that mean? So I was packing this mother fucker every day for 2.5 months, getting gauze shoved in what I thought was my new belly button, which my PS created for me. I think I was wrong. I stuffed it for as long as I could and it appeared to be closing up, smaller and smaller and tighter and tighter. I called my PS office. Yep, I was told it will close, when it heals from the inside out. Well fuck me. I thought I had............ya, apparently nothing. Ha. I have my pre-op appointment coming up later this week, so I will find out more then.

So what's next? My final two surgeries are approaching. 17 more days to go and all my surgeries and this breast cancer journey is one more step to being finalized! I am eagerly awaiting the day to get here, so I can get on the path to final healing and recovery, and get back to "normal". Why did I say "normal" like that? Because I have been reading. I recently learned that I will never go back to what was my normal and I will have a new normal. Apparently your body never actually fully recovers from chemo treatment. Well What the FUCK? Here I am thinking all things will slowly return to what they once were, or not. Apparently not is the answer. Mind you, I have noticeable side effects to this day, but I figured give the chemo a good long time to get out of my system, right? Nope. Wrong. The average person has their blood work return to what it should be about 9 months after the last chemo dose. I have already beat the stats on that as my blood work is and has been stable. Awesome since I am only 5.5 months out from my last chemo treatment.

So what does my new normal look like? I don't know yet, but I hope it means I get back to doing all the things and more that I enjoy. Traveling, baking, spending time with Graham Cracker, to name a few. Then new things I want to do.......roller skating (trying that out a little already), learning to play the violin, skate dancing, and most importantly flor my overall health is getting in shape by taking bungee aerobics and trampoline aerobics. They sound like fun!

I can't wait to get my life back on the right track and try new things. At 46, I am planning on starting to live my best life ever!

My hair is still growing..........so much so that I have started shedding it again!

I 💕 my pigtails!