My reconstructed breast, showing drainage tube |
Days 1 & 2
For the first two days after surgery I was in a heated room (27°C), more-or-less stuck in a banana shape, with knees propped up and the head of the bed elevated. I had 24-hour nursing care, with observations initially every 15 minutes, then half-hourly, dropping to every hour by the end of the second day. All this meant I cat-napped constantly, in between someone taking my vital signs or poking my breast. I was very tired on the first day, and managed to get a surprising amount of sleep, given the frequency of the obs.I was left naked under the sheet (for ease of obs, and to keep bits of me cooler), but I had a "bear hugger" blowing warm air into special bedding, and my new right breast was covered by what looked like a sheet of alfoil, then a folded towel. The risk of tissue rejection is reduced by keeping the area warm, so warm I was!
By the second day the pain relief drug was removed (I had only ever used it prior to being rolled over for a back rub), and I changed to nasal tubes for oxygen - no more Darth Vadar. I was bright, happy, painless. Having slept fairly well, I was pleased to have my catheter removed first thing in the morning, then to get out of bed with the physio's help. I was doing so well that the nurse left me sitting up in a chair chatting to Geoff while she rushed off to sort something out. Bad move. Within seconds of her leaving I felt dizzy, and told Geoff to push the button. Luckily he also went out to the desk to get a nurse. By the time he came back I was unconscious and grey, slumped in the chair. The nurse took one look and pressed the panic button to alert a code blue. People flocked from everywhere, crash carts came from two directions, and I revived to find myself back in bed with eight anxious nurses gathered around me and even more clustered outside the door. My blood pressure had dropped after 15 minutes of sitting up, and I had simply fainted.
Day 3
Things improved - I got out of bed for a couple of hours without any ill-effects, had a shower, and was moved out of the hot room into a standard hospital room. One of the abdominal drains was removed, and I was able to go for a walk up and down the corridor with the physiotherapist. The dressings on my breast and abdomen we "debulked", and my observations were down to two-hourly.
This is one of the drains - I would have liked a pocket to put them in |
Days 4-6
Basically, things just got better and better. I was off oxygen, could get up, shower myself, and go for walks off the ward, upright and confident, with no pain. By day four the carpal tunnel symptoms in my left hand had almost gone (although my right hand stayed numb for a week).By now I was wearing the dreaded underwear - the bra was on 24-hours a day; the corset was on whenever I was out of bed, which rapidly became most of the time. The main hassle was the drains still attached. I had made my own short pyjamas with very roomy tops; I could easily have built internal pockets to house the drains had I known what they would be like. It would have been a lot better walking around with them tucked away instead of hanging off my clothes. By the 5th day the second abdominal drain was out, so I was left with only one.
I was still having to sleep in the banana position, and found myself taking walks around the hospital in the wee hours of the morning, just to relieve the pressure on my poor bum.
