Pieces

There's more to say about how the surgery itself went, but for now, here are some bits from the last couple of days. 

The hardest part about yesterday, pun intended, was the constipation. I had had one bowel movement the first night home, but I’m used to 2-3/day so was getting increasingly uncomfortable as the day progressed. I tried a lot of different things – over-the-counter colace and colace with senna; stewed prunes; drinking lots, including prune juice; half a dose of miralax, then when that didn’t do it, another half-dose by early afternoon. Eventually I felt desperate enough to send Don out to the drug store for glycerin suppositories, which was the kind my sister-in-law Dr. Margot recommended. I expected one of these to work nearly instantaneously, and when it didn’t I added a second one. When this still didn’t work (and I’d gotten to the point where I couldn’t eat and didn’t feel comfortable sitting up) I finally thought to look up the acupressure points for constipation. I stimulated a number of them myself; then my sister Rachel, just arrived from California, spent some time on a couple of points she knew. Then we decided it was time for an evening walk, the heat having abated enough; I thought I’d try sitting on the pot one more time before leaving, and – voila! Success! The walk was much more pleasant as a result.

We had timed Rachel’s arrival and Margot’s departure to overlap so that Margot could train Rachel in the management of my drains, etc. “Etc.” turns out to be quite a lot – I am wearing a special camisole with pockets for the bulbs that collect the fluid from the drains, and over the top of it, a tightly-fitting compression garment that looks like a 1970s “tube top” but has a Velcro closure. Taking the whole apparatus off once each day to wash is a project, and last night there were 5 of us working on it (really not necessary, but Anita happened to come by while we were training Rachel at it).

Today is the first day I’m allowed to take Ibuprofen since the surgery (due to its blood-thinning properties) and I decided to try alternating it with Tylenol instead of oxycodone. So far my pain levels haven’t been too bad – definitely a little more pain than on the oxy but I feel much more like myself not being drugged, and am awake more of the time. Even so, I fell asleep in the middle of a somatics coaching session by phone this afternoon, and then slept for another hour and a half!

I have PT exercises to do twice a day, an increasing number each day, to move my arms in various ways -- I’m supposed to go as far as I can without causing sharp pain or pulling on drains or stitches. With the various forms of numbness, tingling, burning, itching, etc. it can be a little hard to tell what is what, but I am working on paying enough attention to try to tell the difference between stretching under-used or swollen tissues, and pulling on stitches or drains! I am also walking a bit further every day, and have been doing a few lunges and squats as well (nothing wrong with those leg muscles!!) I continue to be grateful that I’d been working out a lot, I think it helps with this stage enormously (especially having strong core muscles – getting in & out of bed and changing position in bed are the hardest things, and they are easier than they would be without the core strength I’ve built).

Oh, and speaking of defecation, which we were (sorry!), for those tracking these intimate details, I have not, as it turns out, needed help wiping my butt – nor have I used the “bottom buddy” I ordered. Perhaps this is because I wasn’t pooping much at first, but I think in general it’s because I didn’t get reconstruction, so the recovery is much easier and less painful.

A couple of days ago I started a new jigsaw puzzle with Celeste’s help, and today Diane S. and Z! both worked on it with me at different times as well, along with Rachel. It’s a Liberty Puzzle, which is very unusual, because it’s made of wood, with very intricate interlocking pieces, some of which are figures and images of their own, that disappear into the picture once you assemble them. It’s going pretty fast with all that help, so it’s a good thing I have two more regular cardboard puzzles waiting in the wings (thanks to Margaret for one of them!)

I am starting to get used to my flat-chested appearance in the mirror. It was a bit shocking at first, and with my still very short (but growing fast) buzz cut I look pretty butch despite the flowery print on the tube top. I supposed if I get used to it enough during this stage of healing, I may not even bother with prosthetics (though they did send me home with pillow-type things that I could stuff in a camisole if I really couldn’t stand the totally tomboy look). My bare chest isn’t exactly flat yet – puckered and swollen and bruised and taped together with steri-strips – so I’m trying to withhold judgment on it at this point!

Thanks again for your well-wishes to me and Don and his dad. Irv is continuing to decline and Don will likely go to Indiana within the next couple of days. We have another family member on Don’s side who was in a car crash a couple of nights ago too, she is going to be okay but has some broken bones and a punctured lung, so we are spreading the well-wishes as widely as we can!!