Blue Boob and Lop-side land

Anyone have an expectation vs reality story to go with their surgery experience?

(Sorry in advance for how terribly this is written, possibly incoherently, it would appear I get "Endone brain")

I was really hoping I'd be a "went home with a panadol and barely needed it the next day" stories, unfortunately I'm on 2 x 500mg paracetamol and 2x 5mg Endone and still feeling the pain through it 48 hours later.

I also wasn't anticipating having to stay overnight, having been told it was a "day surgery" and several times noted that I'd "most likely go home that afternoon". It wasn't and I didn't, but I got my own fabulous room Medicare covered so there I stayed. 

Unlike a lot of stories I was comforted by, I was not fitted for or provided with a recovery bra either (and the Berlei post-surgical is not available anywhere locally, we're searching on-line but the soonest it can be here is in 3 days) so I'm sitting here trying not to move it and propped up on pillow while my partner runs on a hunt to find me a soft K-mart sports bra.

My surgeon "took a lot, a-lot-a-lot out", much more than she was expecting, and I have a teeny little left boob now, it's warped but I actually have sensation in my nipple that I was not expecting at all. And, amazingly, this spectacular surgeon has left me with what looks like the smallest amount of scarring possible. For what it is, I'm delighted. I mean, it's horrible to have to go through, I wish none of this had ever happened, but I don't think I could have been luckier when it came down to finding her.

For your enjoyment and giggles, this is a really accurate representation of my breasts: O-o

I'm home and I'm surrounded in pillows - thank you everyone for the back-prop and body pillow advice, I couldn't be doing without them, it has helped so much.

 

General surgery experience:

I had a panic attack before I went in, the nurse administering the pre-surgery clot-stopping injection in my leg told me it should be painless, but it bumped up and didn't disperse properly so it was stinging like a wasp had got me, which I knew "wasn't right" which was enough to set me off after the emotional turmoil of the last precisely 3 weeks since diagnosis.

Hyperventilating and tears, the whole show. Those tears started and didn't really stop until I'd been knocked out. How embarrassing. I was wheeled in to the anesthetists room and one of the surgical team looked and me and said "Oh no, you cry? Why you cry? Oh no! No cry! Is all okay!" so cheerily but sympathetically as if there really was nothing to worry about and everything was just routine. ... It just wasn't routine for me. My first ever surgery, my first ever general anesthetic, my first ever "time leap" that I was completely unprepared for. Allegedly when I woke up and spotted my partner I squeaked some nonsense at him, haha!

I remember nothing surrounding the actual general. I've got my anesthetist's face in memory, the nasty pain of having the three tube IV poked in my hand and ZONK until I woke up in my room, which I also barely remember doing. It was as if I'd walked in to a room and forgotten why, but I'd always been in the room - there was no weird surprise, no relocation shock, just an oh hey, this bed is comfy.

After it all there was an icing on the cake moment with one of the nurses. Instead of crying I just laughed and had my mother in law take photos. I had to go to the bathroom but was hooked up to saline and had no mobility available, so the nurse tried to untangle a cord and FLICKED the one ATTACHED TO ME like a reign on a horse nearly tearing it out of my hand. She decided it would be better to just unhook me and unscrewed the drip, of course, she'd excited my damn vein and it bled profusely. Pool on the covers over my arm and down my gown before she could get the cap on. She was so shocked and frazzled. Yeah honey, that's what happens when you're careless with things that are attached to people. Dear me.