You know, I can tell you that I was ready for this day! Cancer had been in my body long enough! I had the perfect team of Doctors and I was ready.
I had my surgery at Novant Presbyterian Medical Center. The Surgery itself, if you are doing Mastectomy with Reconstruction, takes about 4 hours. They do your lymph node mapping and testing first and then in my case, Dr. Turk removed my old implants, removed all my breasts and tissue and then Dr. Capizzi came in and did the reconstruction. My incisions are where my nipples were. So, two incisions about 3 1/2 inches on each breast.
When I woke up in recovery, thankfully my Anesthesiologist, had given me pain blockers and anti nausea medication during the procedure, so I was in some pain, but for what had just happened, I felt I was doing pretty good.
I was in recovery for a few hours and they helped me manage the pain. Honestly it was not severe pain. So, I was moved to my room and was able to be awake and talk to my Family for quite a while. You do have pain and they can get you somewhat comfortable, but I would like to state that the pain is there and it never completely goes away for a few weeks! It just becomes more tolerable each day. The best thing to do is rest – rest a lot and move as little as possible those first few days.
I was able to go home early the next day, after my Surgery. They discharge you with all of your information and details on how to empty your drains. Drains, I will say, were about the worst part of this – only because they are just a nuisance!
