Sleeping through the night was not a problem. In the morning, I was feeling pretty good. My body was kept comfortable with the pain meds. I was to take 1-2 pills every 4-6 hours, but the pain was tolerated by taking 1 pill instead of 2. My doctor, nurses, and so many others told me to take the pain meds as directed because you don’t want to take the meds when you START feeling the pain or you will be chasing the pain consistently and feeling mostly pain all the time. You want to get AHEAD of the pain and want your body to heal. Otherwise, it takes longer to heal when your body is trying to constantly fight pain and then blood pressure goes up. My body was tired, stressed out.
I had difficulty using my arms to get out of the couch let alone, position myself on the couch. The only time I moved from the couch was to use the bathroom. I would shuffle my way to the bathroom. I had to learn to wiggle my body to move myself around. My lower right back area was really starting to bother me. I had a dressing that was wrapped around my entire chest and back. I couldn’t see anything in my chest area nor did I want too because I thought I was going to have a chest like a flat ironing board and that was difficult for me since I was a size D. I didn’t even want to feel my chest area with my hands. I couldn’t fathom what my chest was going to look like as I personally liked my boobs in the past.
I was able to eat crackers, Jello, and yogurt. Ray did EVERYTHING for me. He sat next to me at the table figuring out a schedule on paper as when to take all my medications and when to drain my Jackson-Pratt drains. He had the schedule set up where we were able to cross off what meds I took. He labeled the medications by placing a colored dot on top of each medication bottle and wrote a letter on the colored dot. For example, Oxycodone was yellow and had a big O on the dot. Keflex was green with a big K written on the dot. That way, were not having to grab a medication bottle and trying to read it and figure out what bottle contained what pills. Then Ray used his cell phone and rigged it for alarms to go off and the name of the medication would pop up on his cell to let us know which medication was needed. Ray placed a bell on the coffee table for me to use if I needed him while he was working downstairs in the den. Seriously though, I don’t think I ever rang the bell because he was there all the time, checking up on me and bringing me food, water, meds, adjusting pillows, etc. He gave me some concoction drink which consisted of prune juice and a couple of Tablespoons of apple juice. This special drink was to keep me from being constipated from all the pain meds and antibiotics. I was prescribed a medication for constipation too.
Here were my medications below and what I posted on Facebook: I will admit, taking all this is getting really old. Some of these bottles need to be taken 4-5 pills a day, like the 2 different antibiotics and some other meds are 2-3 times a day. Ray has his phone rigged with a chime that goes off, letting him know which pills I need to take next and we have a chart which we cross off each time I take a medication. Some pills need to be taken at 1am. At least I have no pain or stomach upset.
The Jackson-Pratt drains were not that bad at all. At first, the fluid was a nasty looking, pinkish red and clear in color. You just want to make sure it is not port wine red. I had 2 drains on one side and 2 drains on the other side and they were labeled with numbers, 1 thru 4. Ray had no problem emptying out the drains. It did not phase him at all. He also had to strip the tubes by going to where the end of the tube was connected to my skin, pinching it with one hand and with the other hand, he pinched and moved along the tube to the other end of the tube which connected to the JP drain holder. This was to make sure no blood clots were forming and the gunk was draining properly. Ray talked to my uncle who would tease him and say, “So, Ray, are you stripping?” My uncle had to strip tube for my aunt who also had breast cancer, but one breast. This is what the Jackson-Pratt drains look like below. They were labeled with numbers. I seriously felt like I was a bomber with a bunch of hand grenades strapped to my body with dressing and tape around my chest.
Here is what I posted on Facebook: I made it through the night. Difficult to walk, difficult to pull down PJs to pee. I have bandages wrapped around my chest. I don’t even want to look at my incisions. I’m trying to eat crackers and Jello or pudding to keep down pain meds. I have no appetite. Drinking fluids though. Trying to take deep breathing through the machine from the hospital. I have TED hose on to wear for another few days to prevent blood clots. My right side hurts more than my left. I see plastic surgery the 18th and I have to set up appointment with breast surgeon next week to go over path results to see if there were other areas of cancer. Normal standard procedure. I laid on the couch upright for now all night. Recliner looks tempting, but not sure if I will be able to get out of that contraption. Haha.
I did pretty well the first day at home. The only main problem was my right lower mid back was bothering me and I started adjusting or moving the bandages and tape away from my skin in that area. Other than that, all was good.
Later in the afternoon, my bandage was starting to loosen up and I finally took a peek at my chest. OH MY GOSH! I was in shock! As I took a sneak peek by looking down at my chest, Wow!!! I was so excited!! I had some boobies!!! I even had a cleavage. Holy cow! I was so impressed. Haha. No red stuff (blood) on the skin or bandage. I was so incredibly happy with the look of my chest. I couldn’t believe it!!!!
