Non-events and other things

It has now been 10 days since my surgery. How times flies! How have I spent that time. Get out of hospital, visit parents, eat Mexican food, eat blueberry pancakes, walk with friend, eat tuna sandwiches, eat Portobello Mushroom chili, sleep, eat more of the same, eat Halibut, welcome dogs, sleep, eat more, walk dogs, visit nieces and sister, eat chicken and dumplings, paint, eat crepes, sleep, eat more, walk dogs with sister, eat turkey and cheese sandwiches, eat veggie omelet, watch movie(s), visit nieces, BIL and sister, sleep, eat enchiladas, visit with friends, walk dogs, eat vegetarian chinese food, visit with friends watch movie, sleep, go to Dr.

I think you see a pattern there - eat, sleep, walk....hmmmm....

And through it all, I am still dealing with these darn drains. For the faint of heart, do not read this part. What are drains. They are tubes which are sewn into your skin at the surgical sights - in my case, one at the reconstructed breast and two in the abdominal "donor" area. They are very long - dangling to my knees - and attached to the end are bottles with little plugs. The bottles are compressed to create a suction and then sealed. The idea is that they will drain any fluids your body decides to create to fill any vacuums left by the surgery until the skin is able to re-adhere and seal off those vacuums. The bottles are very annoying and need to be emptied and recorded twice/day. They are pinned to your clothing so that they don't dangle and pull out. The tubes hang everywhere. Wearing clothes is difficult since the abdominal tubes come out of the pubic area meaning that you have to button your pants above or below them - both options not the normal place for wearing pants and also cause pull and rub at the insertion points. The upper tube is right at the bra line. I must wear a bra - as required by my surgeon to suppport the new surgeries and that causes pull and rub at the upper insertion point. By today, my skin was red and irritated at all insertion points, all of my clothes had blood marks from leakage at the insertion points and, overall, I was uncomfortable.

I was really looking forward to my Dr. visit to have those things removed! All went well and the Dr. says I am recovering fine. My scars are doing well and the flap is pink, warm and soft - a real breast - yeah! Although, all of the swelling is not supposed to subside for 4 - 6 months, a good deal of it has already and the bruising is healing. The biopsy that was done on the lump from my left breast, came back benign, as expected but a reason to cheer anyway since things aren't always as expected (flash back to my first surgery - March 11, 2005 - all was supposed to be benign then and instead immense amounts of cancer were found in my right breast).

And, best of all, 2 of the drains were removed. The two that were bothering me the most. I would have liked to have all 3 out but one is still draining steadily so I will take the two. Tonight, I will sleep better and it is a whole lot easier to dress, shower and generally move around with only 1 drain.

And finally.....
what I haven't done this week that I thought I would do during recovery:
read books
catch up on reading all of the magazines laying around here
watch more movies
finish my needlepoint (the one and only one I will every do)
knit the dog toys project that I got to do during chemo (1 year ago)
paint at home
make jewelry

I thought that I will have all of this time just laying around but, so far, it has not been like that. The time has flown by...........doing just what, I am not sure but every day seems to have come and gone....