Day after surgery #3 post

Because apparently the medicine REALLY went to my brain. I was typing and then kind of just stopped and wrapped up. Even though I hadn't actually wrapped up. I was MID story. WOW.

So where was I? Josh was there, Dr. Prats stopped in...

He gave me the information about the weight loss, the exercise, the coughing etc. Oh right. He then asked if I had my upper GI. I had not. He said he would ask around and see what could be done. About 30 mins later the guy with the wheel chair shows up and IT'S THE SAME WEIRDO FROM LAST YEAR!! Seriously!

He takes me down and the ride was bumpy and I was nauseous. Then I had to wait for them to be ready ready for me. I should have taken my iPhone.

The girl comes and gets me and tells me I have to drink the gastrografin. BUT, this time it was mixed with barium and it wasn't NEARLY as bad. I ended up with the same doctor as last year, but he was MUCH nicer this time. He really felt bad for me when I explained all the stitches, the fact I was there last year and this was a reoccurring issue. That worked out well for me.

The test was much quicker this year, all looked good and I had no leaks.

When I got back to my room I was told it would still be a while until I was released. I was in a ton of pain, so I requested more morphine. My mom decided to run to our house and shower and while she was gone they came back and were like "ok, you are ready to go!" So Josh helped give me a little birdie bath, got me dressed, I signed the paperwork and I was finally out the door.

Getting back to the house is a blur. I know the car ride was painful hitting the bumps. I know mom answered the door to our house. I know I was set up on the couch. I think I slept a lot. I know I cried from the pain. I know I slept more and I know mom and Josh were a little worried about me. I also know Josh had beautiful flowers waiting for me!

Kandice and Jason stopped by with some awesome goodies. I was in no state for company, so I didn't see them. Sorry guys! They brought me some cookies and cream ice cream, fudgepops and juicebars. They also brought FLOWERS!

I took my percocet every 4 hours faithfully, drank juice and slept a lot. Mom stayed an extra night even because I was doing really bad.

We got up on Sunday morning and mom left early. Everything is kind of a blur though. Lots of pain, lots of drugs. Unfortunately the drugs didn't completely eliminate the pain. They take the edge off, but not a lot. They also make it hard to think and focus. Ugh.

Speaking for forgetting things. I ALSO forgot to mention the book my friends Nina and Greg sent me that I got on Thursday night!

I will read it soon!!

More thanks to everyone! I am going to try to get this completely up to date before the end of the week! We will see.

Doctor follow up tomorrow.

*hugs and kisses*

mj

I realize it's December and all...

but can I add to my wishlist??

I want THIS.

It is a freaking heaven in brownie form!! And I can make rice crispy treats, and mini cakes, and any other tiny snack I want!

Please Santa, if you are listening... I NEED this. :-)

I found out about this from some internet friends. I participated in a gift exchange and sent my exchangee her gifts on Monday. She got them today!! Her husband had gotten her the magic posted above and had it sent to their house. Silly husband forgot she gets home first. Lol. BUT she's excited none the less.

People also started getting my Christmas/Holiday cards. Yay!!

I'm currently sick (boo) with super sore throat and monster head congestion. Tomorrow I meet with the surgeon about my alien baby.

Only 8 days until CO!

Only 21 days until Mole Removal!

Only 22 days until Operation too busy Christmas Season begins!

And Only 23 days until CHRISTMAS!!

*hugs and kisses*

mj

It's December 1

Which means only 24 days until Christmas. I love Christmas and normally adore this time of year, but things have been less than fabulous around here.

Let's do a list of things that is going crazy in my life as a way to deal with it and MOVE on.

1. My alien baby. Surgeon appointment on Thursday. I better get some answers.

2. Family issues. Teenagers are stupid. I love them, but stupid. *sigh* I screwed up too as a teenager, but when I was a teenager there wasn't the social networking or INTERNET or the over abundance of cell phones. Stupid.

3. A week from Thursday we leave for CO. The Ativan test went exceptionally well on Sunday. I'm still nervous about getting everything together and about the whole... you know... FLYING thing.

4. My christmas/holiday cards are out. Now I'm afraid I forgot people. Awesome.

5. I'm getting sick I fear. My throat is sore. Really sore. I have a tree to buy and decorate on Saturday!!

6. Still have presents to buy and wrap, and yet when?

7. Need to buy all the ingredients for Christmas cookies, make said cookies, wrap and distribute. Oh, and before all THAT I need to figure out WHAT I'm making.

8. Oh, and I have to pack for the trip.

9. The house is barely half decorated.

10. We are hosting TWO family Christmases at our house. This means we need to clean the house.

So want to be able to properly stalk my movements?

Thursday Dec 3 - surgeon appt

Friday Dec 4 - pick up friend WEDDING dress

Saturday Dec 5 - get Christmas tree

Sunday Dec 6 - pack and maybe make cookies

Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday Dec 7,8,9 - work

Thursday Dec 10 - fly to CO!

Friday, Saturday, Sunday, Monday Dec 11, 12, 13, 14 - hang out in CO and try to get together with some friends

Tuesday Dec 15 - fly back from CO

Wednesday Dec 16 - do lots of laundry

Thursday, Friday Dec 17, 18 - work

Saturday Dec 19 - finish shopping/wrapping for Christmas

Sunday Dec 20 - enjoy the day... or most likely clean the house

Monday Tuesday Dec 21, 22 - work

Wednesday Dec 23 - have my arm cut open to remove the pre-skin cancer cancer cells

Thursday Dec 24 - work early and begin food prep, then have immediate family Christmas

Friday Dec 25 - Christmas! Open gifts with Josh, then drive to parent's house

Saturday Dec 26 - Drive back from parent's house in time to make it to FIL side family Christmas

Sunday Dec 27 - Get up early to make food, and then host MIL side of family Christmas

Monday Dec 28 - SLEEP

Tuesday, Wednesday Dec 29, 30 - work

Thursday Dec 31 - New Year's EVE

Friday Jan 1 - Thank God it's the freakin new year and hope it's better than the last one!!

I might update now and then. If not either I'm doing the above things or I'm dead. Weeee!!

*hugs and kisses*

mj

Day THREE post op

Saturday night was good.  I took a percocet because I was afraid I wouldn't be able to sleep.  I ended up sleeping like a baby.  I didn't even try to roll onto my stomach!  Success!

Sunday we tried to get my ugly cotton bras on.  Guess what?  They didn't fit.  Oops.  I felt bad sending Josh to try to find them, so I went with him!  We walked around Walmart a little (that was where I got the original bras).  It felt good to be out and about already, but the car ride was not fun.  All those bumps in the road.  Ow. Ow. Ow.   

I did get another birdie bath from Josh.  This time though I had all the bandages off.  I'm not going to lie.  I almost passed out looking at the incisions.  They aren't bad, but everything just feels off.  My skin is more taunt between my breasts, the liposuctioned all my side boobage, my nipples have stitches all around them.  *gag*  Josh was SUCH a good sport though and helped me a ton.  He didn't even make a gross face when seeing them.  

I took tylenol every 4 hours and put ice on occasionally for 20 mins each time.  Things felt pretty good actually.  We had one visitor who stopped by with this     .  My favorite color is ORANGE and she found all ORANGE candy for me.  How awesome!!  

And speaking of gifts, we did have a visitor on Saturday, but I was sleeping.  They brought over these awesome flowers and balloon!  

I LOVE the orange vase.  His favorite color is orange too,  and it was our mutual love of this and good music that bonded us.  :-P

So later Sunday evening we got a phone call and it was another friend and his girlfriend.  He lives close and they were heading to Rita's, and they offered to grab some for us.  I wasn't in the mood, but Josh got one.  They stayed for a bit and hung out with us.  It is definitely much nicer this surgery without taking the pain meds.  They make me all woosy and tired.  This time I am feeling really good and alert!

I want to stop pretending to be super woman and tell you the bad things going on from this surgery.  I had some sort of allergic reaction in the hospital.  I had a weird rash on my body and was itchy.  No one knows exactly what caused it though.  Hmmmm... 

Having the drains pulled is still making me feel pukey if I think about it.  Ugh.

I also am having a vision problem.  No seriously.  I wear contacts/glasses to see far away, but I have NO close up vision problems.  Well Sunday I noticed I couldn't see my laptop screen, my cell phone screen or read a book.  Somehow my perfectly normal near sighted vision was gone.  Hmmm... not good.  After talking to my mom, some girls who have some med knowledge I found it is it a rare, but known side effect of the anti nausea patch Trans Sopolamine. 

I took the patch off this morning and it seems like things are getting slightly better.  Not cool that it happened.  So weird.

Also, my uvula is all swollen.  That's apparently from the intubation tube.  Someone was a little rough with it at some point.  Chloroseptic is my friend.

I slept really well again last night.  Josh did wake me up to take my tylenol, but I always fell right back to sleep.  Since Josh had taken the day off, we just kind of vegged around a lot.  I took a shower today all by myself!  It hurt a little and felt odd, but I washed my hair, shaved, etc.  It took a little longer, but it wasn't too bad!

The only real pain I feel is like a quick pain.  Sort of like if your foot falls asleep and then when you wake it back up you get those pins and needles.  Yeah.  That is what my boobs occasionally feel like.  My liposuctioned side boobs still hurt, but I look fantastic.  Well at least I think so.  

Honestly, I thought they looked too small, but they don't, they just look very proportionate.  The downside is my stomach looks bigger.  I'll work on that after this recovery though!  Oh, and fully swollen (well I guess I'm swollen.  I don't feel swollen, and I have NO bruising.) I am down 2 inches bust wise.  I went from 43 1/2" to 41 1/2".  I was hoping to be under 40" but we'll see what I can do once I'm healed.  

So here is what people want to see I'm sure.  Some before and afters together.  Before picture is in the "real" bra and the after is in the front hook job.  Enjoy!!

*hugs and kisses*

mj

All about a Breast Reduction

So Thursday I got the phone call for what time I had to be at the hospital on Friday. (9:30AM arrival and 11:30AM surgery).

Thursday night I took some "before pictures"  Here is from the front.

And here is from the side.  Yes I know they don't look all that big to most people, but that bra is a 38DDD.  The band never rested on my ribcage because it was too big, but I couldn't find anything larger than a 36DDD and that was too small... soo... yeah.

I do have some braless, but you'll have to specifically ask me for those.  You can email me at mrsmjane@gmail.com.  If you do email me please give me your name, and how I "know" you, because I'm not just randomly sending those out!!

My mom came down Thursday night as well.  We took a few pictures before leaving the house Friday morning. 

 This is me updating my internet friends and talking to Meme on the phone.  Hi internet friends!!

How cute and happy I look before surgery.  :-P

Here is a picture of Mom and I before leaving for the hospital:

Yes I know it looks like she is cupping my boob.  She kind of was.  Lol.

  We had to cut each others hair before leaving.  It's some old wives tale for Good Friday.  So we did it.

          

These were all the in the car shots on the way to the hospital.  Fun stuff!!

When we got to the hospital, we went up to the short procedure unit and they had a private room for me.  I've explained this before, but I'll go over it again.  You stay in this preop room until the very start of your surgery so you can hang out with whomever brought you (in my case it was my mom and Josh).  It makes the waiting go by much quicker.

So while in my room I had to get naked, pee in a cup (to make sure I wasn't pregnant - I'm not), and answer TONS of questions.  This is also when I got my IV put in.  The girl THIS time got it first try, no problems, unlike my last surgery IV, but I digress.  

         

Josh and I posing in the first one and giving a thumbs up for the IV in the second one.

Mom and Josh made me put on my surgical cap so they could laugh at me.  I thought I looked super cute anyways.

Dr. Born then came in and marked me all up.  It was kind of weird, but I'm not too modest so I

 was fine. I also have pictures from this.  See instructions above on how to view these. He then took a picture of me for reference.  Three minutes later he was back, he accidentally deleted the pictures, so he needed new ones.  Oops.  Before I knew it the anesthesiologist nurse came in, gave me the drugs and the next thing I knew I was waking up in recovery.  

This was taken when I got back from the recovery room.  I was sleeping again. The ladies in the recovery room laughed at me because I wake up SUPER quickly and I'm always super perky, talkative and funny.  They said they'd rather have someone like me then the people that wake up all grumpy.  Not this girl though!!

Here are the drains that I had in.  Ugh.

Here is mom helping me walk around that night.  The doctor said I would heal quicker if I move around, so I went moving around.  I would also like to count the 4 bazillion bathroom trips I took.

Yum.  Breakfast.  I didn't each much dinner the night before, so I was kind of hungry.  I only ate the one slice of toast, some eggs and the milk.  I gave my mom the coffee, OJ and we dumped the cream of wheat.  Ewwww.

  

After breakfast I did a little computering.  It was fun, but didn't last long.  I wasn't in pain really, just REALLY tired and sleepy.  I still kind of am though.

Right there I am pointing our the patch behind my ear.  It helped with the nausea and I can leave it on three days.  Apparently people can get sick from this surgery... and since my last surgery I am physically unable to throw up.  So I really really needed this.

Just a little more computering.  Lol.

The MUCH smaller boobs all packed into an ace bandage.  You can also see the icky drains.

          

Just a few more random pictures of me.

So Josh had called me Friday night (he ran home while my mom stayed with me) and found a PRESENT for me!!  He brought it in today so I could open it.  The little cute card is above (FYI I *pph* my internet best friend Rachel).  And what was in the package??  

The Duggar book!  Not everyone will get how funny this is, but I do.  THANKS Rachel!!

          

Waiting to get discharged.  I had my ice packs on under my zip up hoodie.  It held them well.

In the car on the ride home!

Finally home!  It felt sooo good to be out of the hospital!!

So since yesterday I have only taken TWO pain pills.  I had one oxycodone right after I woke up from surgery and one this morning because at some point in the middle of the night I rolled over onto my side/stomach and REALLY irritated the drains.  Ouch.

Other than that I just take 2 tylenol every 4 hours and put on the ice packs occasionally.

I wasn't discharged until the drains were out.  Having the drains out.  Ugh, ouch, ewww.  I'm not going to lie and say it wasn't that bad.  Ha.  It was.  But after that all seemed well.

Josh helped give me a sponge bath and he washed my hair in the kitchen sink.  

So that was the surgery and what we did today.  I'm doing fantastic and I love how little and PERKY they are.  Yeah!  I can't wait to see them when the nipples stop bleeding and I can just look at them and admire them.  I'll try to keep the healing process updated for anyone interested.  

*hugs and kisses* and thanks for ALL the support!!

mj

Everyone needs to know someone like Rachel

So I have a friend named Rachel.  She is one of my favorite people.  We met on a "financial networking group."  No, we've never met in real life, but hopefully that will change soon.  People meet spouses on the internet, so why not meet great friends??

Rachel is a super bright spot in the world.  She is kind and caring.  Lately things have been a little medically rough for her.  Yet, she still finds time to ask me how my life is going, how I'm doing, etc.  She worries about others and is such a genuinely sweet person.  Words don't even come to me on how to describe her true awesomeness, so I'll stop sounding stupid and just say I ADORE this girl.

Anyways, last Thursday she had surgery to remove some sort of (we are hoping benign) mass on her collar bone/neck.  She texted me post surgery to let me know how she was doing.  She also sent two pictures.  One she is smiling just like she usually does - she is one strong girl.  

I let our friends on our group know how she was doing and one of the fabulous ladies (hi "Ali"!!) suggested we take up a collection to send Rachel flowers.  Since the ladies on this site are all over the US and Canada and a few throughout the world, I set up an online contribution place.  In just a few HOURS we had over $1000!!  I ordered flowers to send to Rachel and then we had to decide what else to do.  When I closed this fundraiser today we had $1320 (with a couple other donations coming in later)!!!  Wow.  We let Rachel know what we did and she is going to split the money between two causes important to her.  

I will list which ones she chooses when it happens.  That way anyone can donate later if they choose!!  

A little funny was something else we were thinking of doing with the money.  Rachel has a favorite jewelry website called Dogeared.  I picked out two necklaces I thought she would love and asked the ladies to vote.  Thank goodness I didn't order them because I found out from Rachel on Friday that they had SENT her the EXACT two necklaces for being such a wonderful, inspirational person and promoting their product!!  I must have good taste considering they sent her the same ones (and they have TONS of necklaces too)!!

Here is what she received:

The "I am healthy and my body is strong" necklace

 This is the "Explore" necklace

Also on Friday she received the flowers I sent on behalf of our group.

I stole this picture from Rachel's blog.  The flowers did turn out beautiful, and look at that lovely reusable canister!  Lol.

All of this has restored my faith in humanity.  People ARE willing to help others out.  These ladies have never met this young woman and selflessly sent money for no reason other than to brighten Rachel's day.  There really are good people in the world and lately I am ever so thankful I know so many of them.  *hugs* to all the fabulous people in my life right now.  It really means so much to me!!

*hugs and kisses*

mj