Surgery prayerfully went very well - all in all less than 7 hours! And for that I am extremely grateful. For me it was like a short sleep; however, for Goudy and Lauren it was a very long and exhausting day. My recovery time after surgery was a little longer as my oxygen would not come up and stay up as they would have liked. Every time I started to drift back off to sleep, it would fall under their preferred numbers. My blood pressure was not playing nicely for them either, apparently my body just did not want to cooperate. Even though both were a little on the low side, they finally released me to go up to my room and be reunited with Goudy and Lauren.

The next 24 hours was a quick lesson in how to get in and out of bed, learning how to sit in a chair and my “favorite” to walk around the nurses station. These things seem like something that should be second nature; however, when utilizing your core muscles is restricted, you have to relearn this in order to not irritate and aggravate your stitches. My nurses, however, were the absolute best, very caring and nurturing and made the stay much easier. We were able to be ourselves and joke around with them and at the same time learn all of the necessary things to help with the next few weeks of recovery.

I saw my chest for the first time at my daughter’s house and it was such a surreal moment. There are a flood of emotions that you are not prepared for as you see your body for the first time. For me, it was a little strange having cleavage, boobs in their proper places, and a flat stomach, you find yourself thinking whose body is this? And what the heck happened to my sad little sea turtle feet (inside MRI joke)

We recently upgraded our toilet and installed a nice, fancy bidet (thank you Becky, Taylor and Micah) and I cannot express enough how grateful I am for these two items. It has a heated seat (which will be wonderful come wintertime), heated water, and an air dryer function as well as few other settings. Goudy has adjusted the water pressure on it so that the equivalent to Old Faithful doesn’t come greet you unexpectedly. It has definitely been a learning process in finding the correct settings, and I can assure you there are a few little buttons that will remain unused - but I highly recommend it!

Goudy has been the absolute best caretaker! He has alarms to make sure I take my meds on time, making sure I am getting all of my protein and extra things for healing, and he has the cleaning and emptying of my drains down to a science. I currently have four drains, two breast and two hip drains. These have to be cleaned and emptied twice a day. They each have their own little cups to measure the daily fluid as once they reach a certain level I can have the drains removed. Our goal is to reach under 30mL for over 24 hours then the drain can be removed. My support bra has clips to hold the drains, and I have lanyard that holds them so that I can shower and not create strain on them or catch them unnecessarily. I also have what is called a Brobe that has drain pockets to hold them in place and keep them secure. It is so very soft and very comforting to wear. There are quite a few tricks you learn to keep things from pinching or getting caught on things you normally wouldn’t think twice about. I have disposable underwear that we cut out to help keep maxi pads in place to protect them from the binder I have to wear as it irritates the my abdominal scar. And so far, sleeping in the recliner has been the easiest.