Two surgeries in two weeks. Tough. Very tough. I saw the plastic surgeon on Friday March 21st to get marked up. It was then that I found out that the original surgical plan of removing skin, fat, and tissue from my lower butt/upper thigh was out of the question. Based on the results of the MR-angiogram, there were no good arteries in the area my doctor wanted to use. Apparently my anatomy is complicated. There were good arteries in my abdomen and in my upper butt. My doctor decided that he wanted to do the DIEP flap for the reconstruction of my right breast. Usually for a double breast reconstruction, the abdomen is split and half the abdomen is used per breast. However, the doctor told me that he was going to use my whole abdomen for the right breast because I needed a lot of new skin due to the damage sustained from radiation. I would have a second surgery to remove the expander in my left breast and rebuild the breast mound using fat and tissue from my upper butt. I decided to have the surgeries as close together as possible so that I would recover quicker. I didn’t want to wait a month, start to feel better, have a second surgery, and feel like crap again. My first surgery was scheduled for March 24th and the second was scheduled for March 28th. The doctor marked up my abdomen with blue permanent magic marker. Blue dots showed where the arteries were.

Monday morning March 24th, Charles, Gillian, and I drove over to Good Samaritan Hospital. Mom met us there. We got there at around 0630 hours. After checking in and some pre-op testing, I was brought to the pre-surgical area. As usual I was freaking out a bit. The doctor said I could take a pre-surgical Xanax to help calm me down. Nurses were in and out. I spoke with my doctor. The anesthesiologist came into the room and we discussed the surgery and my penchant for puking upon waking from anesthesia. She started an IV and shortly thereafter I was wheeled into the Operating Room. At some point, 11 or so hours later, I recall speaking with and seeing my husband and daughter. I think I was in the recovery room. When I woke later, I was in Surgical ICU. I freaked out when I first woke up in my room. I wanted to get out of bed but couldn’t. A nurse injected something (Ativan?) in my IV and I was out. The first night, nurses came in every hour to check my flap with a mini Doppler type device. I also had an internal Doppler. I was happy to hear the “kwoosh-kwoosh” sound of blood flowing through the micro-surgically attached arteries. It meant the flap was working well. My pain was pretty well controlled with Tylenol and a Dilaudid pump. I had about 4 IV’s in me. My hand was all bruised up and my left index finger was numb. (My finger-my trigger finger!!- still doesn’t feel right). My fingers were so swollen they looked like sausages. I had devices strapped onto my lower legs. Air was pumped into them to keep my blood moving. This was to prevent blood clots from forming.
The following day, one of the IV’s was removed in my hand and another was started in my arm. I was receiving fluids, pain relief, and antibiotics through the IV’s. The IV in my hand was removed because it had become painful. Besides the above, I was getting shots of Heparin a few times a day, usually in my thighs. My thighs were all bruised up. Heparin, a blood thinner, was another “device” to prevent blood clots. I was also given Colace (a stool softener).
I found out later that the surgery took so long because of all of the scar tissue I had in my right breast. It took one of the doctors about 4 hours just to clean the area up and to get to the arteries and veins. Charles was going nuts during my surgery because no one came out to tell him what was going on! One of the doctors had told him the surgery would take 6-8 hours. I had previously told him 8-10 hours.

I had been placed in a surgical bra that had most of the right cup area cut away. This made it easier for the nurses to check my flap. They listened to the blood flow through the arteries. I had two purple marks on my breast so the nurses knew where to check for the blood flow. When I got a good look at my breast, it was kind of freaky looking. Definitely “Franken-boob”, with sutures all over. It was also pretty amazing to see how far medicine had advanced. I was wearing a stomach binder. Quite a bit of skin, and tissue were removed from my abdomen. The incision was huge! My new breast has the stretch marks I received carrying my beautiful children.

I was in the hospital until Friday. I got up and walked around a bit by day two, though I was unable to stand upright. The nurses were great. I had to buzz for them often on night two for help getting to the bathroom. Getting into and out of bed was difficult though I developed a system by day four. It was slow going. I’d raise the top of the bed all the way up and swing my legs around and slowly get up. Getting back into bed, I would gently sit down and get help swinging my legs back onto the bed. I was unable to lift my legs. I would then lower the top of the bed and wiggle my way up. I would then raise the top of the bed again. So as not to put pressure on the incision on my abdomen, I had to stay in an upright position, including while sleeping. (I just started sleeping normally a couple nights ago). I spent days four and five walking gingerly through the halls of the hospital. I left the hospital with two drains, one on each side of my abdomen. The one in my breast was removed prior to my release.
The first few days I could not see very well. Everything was blurry. When I told my doctor he stated that it was probably as a result of the anesthesia. At first, one of the anesthesiologists told me that I was at that age where near vision starts to go. I know I am in my 40’s but I didn’t think my vision would change in a day and I stated that. Later another anesthesiologist came in and stated that it was probably from the scopolamine. He removed the patch and stated that my vision should be better within 24 hours. Sure enough, the day after the scopolamine patch was removed, I was able to see again. It’s a miracle. I mean I am “at that age”!!

I was supposed to have my second surgery on Friday, however, on Wednesday I was feeling really crappy and I told the doctor that I wasn’t sure if I could do the surgery so soon. All of the IV’s had “blown” and were removed and I wasn’t sure whether they would be able to start another IV so soon. Thursday I was feeling a bit better and I had changed my mind. By then it was too late as one of my surgeons had another surgery scheduled for Friday. I spoke with the doctor to try to get the earliest surgery possible. They couldn’t get another date in the same hospital until April 21st. I didn’t want to start feeling well and then have surgery and start feeling like crap again. On Friday, the doctor’s office called and advised me that they could do the surgery on Monday March 31st at NY Eye and Ear Infirmary. I thought that it was a bit odd having breast surgery at NY Eye and Ear. We weren’t sure if we wanted to go down to the city. I asked if they could get availability at a hospital closer to home but there was nothing available at the hospitals the docs had privileges in. As Charles’ mom was staying at our house for about another week, we decided to go with NY Eye and Ear, that way someone would be around to take Gillian to school and to her after school activities.

Early Monday morning we headed to NYC. The horrible roads were killer on my body. We got to the hospital and had to wait a bit for registration. My mom met us there. Once I was registered, I was sent up to my room. The room was really nice and there was a couch that could be expanded enough for someone to sleep on. The nurse gave me scrubs and a hospital gown to put on. The doctor came in and marked my right butt cheek to show what area the docs would be removing to fill out my left breast. I told him how I thought having breast surgery at NY Eye and Ear was odd and he informed me that he did the first flap surgery at NY Eye and Ear in 2006. I met with the anesthesiologist and in addition to telling her about puking upon waking, I also advised her about my vision issues. We decided on using the scopolamine as puking would be tough on my incisions. Since I get a little freaked out prior to surgery, they gave me 2 Xanax pills. They brought me down to the OR by wheelchair. I couldn’t have walked because I was out of it. I was singing in the elevator on the way to the OR. They brought me into the OR (still singing) and laid me down on the table and began doing whatever it is all the doctors and nurses do to get me ready for surgery. The anesthesiologist was explaining what she was doing. She was pretty cool. She told me she was going to give me a nice cocktail (a Cosmo, I think). I told her that I preferred Strawberry Daiquiris. Shortly thereafter, I was out!!!!! This surgery took around 6-7 hours. Charles was cool though because he received regular updates. He had told the surgeon how crazy he was during the first surgery because no one told him what was going on.

I woke up in my hospital room. The first night was tough. As my blood pressure was low, all that I was given for pain was Tylenol and Motrin. The catheter was annoying. The following day, the doctor came in and asked how I was doing. I told him that I was in a lot of pain all night. He apologized. Apparently there was a misunderstanding. He thought my pain was controlled with the Tylenol and Motrin. He would have allowed some morphine. I got some morphine shortly thereafter. I’m sure I was part of the problem. I have a high tolerance for pain so every time the nurses asked what my level of pain was, I’d say 4-5. Most people probably would have said 8-9. (My blood pressure was pretty low after my first surgery and I was still allowed to use the Dilaudid. I couldn’t understand why I couldn’t get morphine). For pain, I was given Tylenol and morphine for the first few days. I was given an iron pill. I also was given Colace and I got shots of Heparin a few times a day. More bruises on my thighs. Oh, and my concern regarding IV’s, I saw a bruise on my left foot the day after surgery and was told that during surgery, one of the IV’s was in my foot.
The good part of being in a NYC hospital was that I had more visitors. My CO and co-XO visited and I had a cop with me to help me out when no family was present. The first night, the officer was busy. I was constantly asking to be fed ice chips. It definitely helped.
A couple of my sisters, my mom, and a brother-in-law, also visited while I was hospitalized. It was nice, though the morphine had me kind of out of it so I’m not sure what kind of company I was. My vision was blurry. Once again, about 24 hours after the scopolamine patch was removed, I was able to see again. The nurses were great. The cops were great and my family was great. I was released from the hospital on Thursday with a drain coming from the side of my butt. I still had the drains coming from my abdomen as well. I had to track the output from each of the drains. Once I got home, I was taking Tylenol and Tramadol for pain and Colace (stool softener). The Colace was to prevent straining as that would cause much pain to my incisions.

Sunday I ended up in the ER. I felt like crap. It hurt to breathe. I had chills and couldn’t get warm. I was sitting on my deck, in the sun, with a blanket around me. It was probably partially from dehydration due to the events of Saturday. I had a real bad day on Saturday. I won’t go into details. Just know that it was BAD and probably due to the morphine and iron pills! My incisions were hurting as were the muscles in my chest and abdomen. At the ER, they took blood, urine, did a chest X-ray (to rule out a blood clot in my lungs), and tried to start an IV in my hand. PAIN! They had to take the IV out it was so painful. The nurse, realizing I had a medi-port, accessed the port and I was given fluids through my port. It was a bit uncomfortable for some reason. All the tests results were good. The doc thinks I had a virus. I felt much better after receiving some fluid though.

I’ve been back to the doctor three times since the surgery. I had the drains removed from my abdomen on Tuesday April 8th. I went back on April 14th. I was hoping to get the drain removed from my butt incision but too much fluid was still draining. I went back yesterday and the doc removed the drain. I thought I’d feel better once the drain was removed but I was actually in more pain. It’s still pretty achy. The doctor advised me to start massaging my scars. Should be interesting. There will be no problem massaging my abdomen, but it’ll be funny massaging my breasts and butt!!!
I need to wear a girdle or compression shorts for another week or two to help with the swelling. My lower abdomen is still pretty swollen. Not sure about my butt.

Gillian was extremely helpful after my surgeries. She helped me shower and washed my hair for the first couple weeks as I couldn’t do it myself. She will be a great doctor one day.

My butt looks funky. I am now “half-assed”. Not sure if my butt will ever be even again. I guess they can do some lipo on the left side at some point to even me out. Not sure if I want that though. I can do without more surgery, though I will be going back in a couple months to re-sculpt my breasts if necessary and to make nipples.

That’s it for now. It’s been a crazy month! Each day, I am feeling a little better. Now if only I could get a full night sleep…..

Happy Easter!