Recovery Road

It's Super Bowl Sunday and normally I'd be conjuring up dips and platters and all kinds of yummy treats for the big game.  This is no ordinary Super Bowl Sunday....I'm still a little nauseous and tired and sore from Tuesday's surgery.  Although I feel a little better in terms of pain, I'm not nearly ready to be weened off the pain meds quite yet.  And afraid to become more "backed up" and having absolutely NO appetite, I haven't been eating too much and I've probably lost around 6 lbs already.  Once I go off the pain meds and finish my antibiotic, I'm sure I'll be back to feeling better, unfortunately, it's all on a much slower time-line than the first time.

In addition to the pain, I'm dealing with extremely annoying itching all over my body.  In some spots, particularly around my bra line and close to my drain location, I have raised, red spots which I'm treating with double-strength hydrocortisone cream. You know how the itching works....if you aren't thinking about it, it's fine, but once you start thinking about it and start itching, you can't stop! 

Despite the more painful recovery, I do have some really good news in terms of my drain tubes!!  I am barely draining at all and my serous fluid is straw colored so I'm certain I'll be rid of these drains on Tuesday!  It is so bizarre to me how completely different this mastectomy was from the last.  I never saw straw-colored serous fluid the last time, it was always red, and I drained and drained and drained.  I certainly wasn't expecting this and consider it a massive silver lining!

I'm in pretty good spirits, to be honest. The reality of not having breasts and having a part of my identity taken away hasn't hit me fully, but I guess I'll face it when I'm up and lucid.  I look forward anxiously to my final pathology report and my upcoming appointments this week.  From there I can formulate a plan - a plan of treatment, recovery and major changes in how to find balance that my body is obviously lacking.  I'm excited for these changes- it's like a new beginning.  The problem is that I have no idea where to start! 

Mom and Aunt Sharon are taking great care of me!  And a special thanks to Kelly S for the huge bag of gifts and for taking my loving (but loud) daughters for the day and evening. 

As far as the Super Bowl...I'm proud to be from Indiana- they have hosted a great Super Bowl from what I hear!  I could really care less about either team, but being a Colts fan, there is no possible way I could be happy if the Pats won our turf.  Instead, I'm rooting for Madonna and good commercials!  As always, please feel free to send me a happy, fun, or sappy email at amymariesmith93@gmail.com.