It’s been one week since my tissue expander placement surgery, and I feel great! I went back to work today and spent a long day (9 am-7 pm) in the office, sans pain medicine.

I’ll recap what last week was like:

After my parents and Trisha left on Monday, I did a bit of reading and then decided to go to bed. Sleep, however, did not come very smoothly. The pain pump that had earlier been my best friend turned against me by making me itch. It wasn’t the same awful head itching I felt when my Vancomycin IV started in April. It was more of a general body itching, but enough to wake me up every twenty minutes or so.

The nurse gave me Benadryl but that didn’t seem to help, so around 3 am we made the decision to switch from my pain pump meds (not sure what these were) to the painkiller Percocet. I was finally able to fall asleep for a few hours around 4 am.

By 6:30 am, Mom was in my room. Unlike at Ronald Reagan Hospital where discharge is 11 am, the Outpatient Surgery Center discharge for the special overnighters like me is very early (at 6:37 am! That’s a joke for Mom). And sure enough, Dr. Festekjian was in the room by 7 am, ready to kick me out.

He gave me instructions for the week, such as when to take my antibiotics and when I was okay to shower. He also cut off my stylish ace bandage bandeau bra and took out my PICC line. And he even agreed to pose for a photo, since he’s a blog celebrity and all.

I spent most of Tuesday sleeping since I got little sleep the night before. Bryce did come over and we lounged around watching movies. On Wednesday evening my friend Kim visited after she got off work. We had dinner and went on a walk. I started switching from Percocet to regular Tylenol on Wednesday.

On Thursday I worked from home. Luckily my manager Jerri is very understanding of this strange and often complicated medical situation, so she helped me create a work project that would be doable from home: scrapbooking.

That’s right, I was paid to scrapbook. I work as an Associate Editor at eHow.com, and one of our new products is called Spark. It’s sort of like a bulletin board for the web; you can clip photos and text from around the Internet onto one space.  My Spark boards give instructions for creating scrapbook pages in a more visual format. You can see one I finished, How to Create Graduation Scrapbook Pages.

I also took a shower on Thursday. Aw, the first shower after surgery—pure bliss. I could have showered on Wednesday, but my PICC line bruise made me nervous, so I waited an extra day to be safe.

The bruise is horrendous. It looks like I was punched in the arm by someone very large and very angry. When I had a PICC line on my right arm in April, the bruising was minimal. When I first took a good look at this bruise, it really did freak me out. But I consulted Drs. Horn and Horn and they assured me that it was perfectly normal. And sure enough, the bruise has gone down.

On Friday morning, Mom and I hopped in the car and drove up to Los Angeles to the Playboy Mansion to pick up Trisha to go shopping. This, however, was no ordinary shopping trip: we were in search of mastectomy bras and cotton breast forms! After giving Mom a quick tour of the Mansion, we headed to Miss Stevens, a lingerie store.

Miss Stevens is a store known for its wide array of undergarments to fit unusual sizes and needs. My mom bought her mastectomy bras there and the one that I eventually wore, so no doubt the ladies there are well-versed in mastectomies. However it still felt surreal for Trisha and I to walk in–two young girls in their twenties–and ask for mastectomy bras and breast forms.

The lady at the counter did not miss a beat, and immediately shooed me to a fitting room. I further explained my situation to her, and finally unbuttoned my shirt to show the differences in size. The exact current measurements are 250 ccs of saline in the left tissue expander, 550 ccs of saline in the right tissue expander.

She presented me with various options, ranging from adjustable silicone forms to small bra cup inserts. The silicone forms are always nice, but man! were they expensive. The one she showed me was at least $250! I love myself and I want to look my best, but I am not going to spend that much money just to be even-chested for a month.

I opted for two cup-like inserts. Layered one on top of the other, they give enough shape to match the 550 ccs on the right. Once I am filled up a bit more, I will only need one of the inserts. And then soon (hopefully by mid September) I’ll be even on both sides!

The inserts ended up totaling only $12; pretty good compared to the silicone option. Trisha graciously paid for my inserts as a “thank you” for taking her shopping. Her search for a mastectomy bra was a bit more difficult.

Since she has such a small frame, even the smallest sizes of the mastectomy bras would end up being too big for her after her mastectomy. Sure she could pin them to keep them tight, but that would require constant adjusting…not fun or practical!

After much debate, she ended up buying a mastectomy bra that also works as a compression bra. I think it’s Amoena #2161. My mom used the same kind after her implant exchange surgery, and I have used it too, though it can be a bit itchy so I prefer my softer mastectomy bra. But it opens in front and the stretchy fabric will stay tight on Trisha; plus it has Velcro at the bottom for drain pockets to attach.

Of course it doesn’t actually come with drain pockets, which is so bizarre to me. Drain pockets are probably the cheapest thing to manufacture; they are just little scraps of fabric with Velcro on one side! But for whatever reason, many mastectomy bras don’t actually come with them. Luckily my mother the seamstress has some ideas in mind for Trisha’s drain pockets!

On Saturday morning I drove for the first time, up to the bagel store. Later in the evening I drove all the way to Bryce’s house, which is about an hour away. I definitely favor my right side when I drive so I didn’t feel much strain.

The pain meds finally caught up to me yesterday morning. I’d been mostly taking Tylenol for pain, but sometimes at night I did take a Percocet. I ended up having a splitting headache that started around 10:30 am. I rarely get headaches that are more than just a dull pain, so this one really took me by surprise. I called Mom, almost in tears, and she told me to try to sleep it off in a dark room with a cold compress on my head. The headache was gone by 1 pm (thanks Mom!) and I am officially OFF of Percocet because that was just too painful.

It’s funny how pain medication can sometimes cause more problems than the actual pain is worth.

Today I scheduled my post-op appointment with Dr. Festekjian. I’ll be seeing him on Thursday at 3:45 pm. Hopefully he’ll give me the all-clear to start my tissue expander fills the following week!

I leave you with this picture of me this evening with the two cup inserts in: WHICH SIDE IS SMALLER THAN THE OTHER?! It’s an optical illusion oooooooohhhhoooooh! (OK cut the crap, Rachel.)

 

Connect with Rachel on Google+