Surgery Day Story

On the morning of my surgery, I arrived at the hospital at 6:20. At around 6:30 I was taken back to my room. Things went quite quickly from there. I gave them a urine sample for a pregnancy test then immediately changed into my gown. The gowns were really cool. The hospital just started using these gowns called Bair Paws. Basically it is a gown that has portholes. A tube goes in, you get a remote control to determine the air temperature. It has a really calming effect. Throughout the next hour several nurses, an aide and the anesthesiologist came in. About 15 minutes before surgery my plastic surgeon came in to mark me up. At this point I had already been given some nausea medication and had patch behind my ear for nausea so I was feeling a little tired. It seemed like it took him forever to do the markings. One thing about the markings that shocked me was just how far up he was moving my nipples! It was 2 ½ - 3 inches! He also had to initial each breast because it is state law. About 10 minutes after he was done with the markings I was taken to the operating room. I don’t remember much just looking at the room for a minutes and then having a mask put over my face, a couple deep breathes and that was it. Waking up was horrible for me. My throat hurt really, really bad and I was also have pain on the scale of approximately a 9. I was given 3 vicodin and 2 shots of something I my IV. I was still having trouble with pain. One thing that helped was that I was laying far down in the bed and when they put the head of the bed up it made a little pain go away. They asked if I wanted to come home and I said yes so the nurse called my PS and asked what to give me. While she was waiting for him to I got up and walked to the bathroom. It was not nice to discover that I could not reach behind me. When I got back to my room she gave me a shot of something (D something) as a stronger, longer lasting pain killer. They monitored me for 30 minutes, my husband helped me get dressed and went to get the car while an orderly and my mother-in-law took me to meet the car. The ride home was ok. The bumps hurt. I sat in the front seat with a blanket across my boobs and my seatbelt on. One I was home Iaid down, got up, laid down, got up. I was so restless and I guess I still am. The hydrocodone he gave me is not working as well as I anticipated. I expected to be uncomfortable but not In pain like I am. I go back at 2 this afternoon to have my bandage taken off and a bra put on. I am really anxious to see what the girls look like. My Mom is going with me too and is equally excited. My Mom was at my house when I got home. She was telling my husband and I about how good I looked in the breast area as soon as she saw me. She asked me if the pain was what I thought it would be…my answer…nope, did not know it would hurt this bad. I don’t remember seeing the surgeon after surgery. He talked to my husband and mother-in-law. He said the surgery went well, minimal bleeding and he took off a little under 4 pounds. The surgery took 4 hours which was longer than anticipated. He had told my family 3 hours. I guess that is all I can think of for now.