Thread: The girls move north and the bat wings fly away- Margie's 2nd surgery 4-20

Originally Posted by mgsondance

i'm assuming that's the case- he didn't put drains in my arms.

beth- did you have that feeling i have, like you had inflated BP cuffs on your upper arms?

I had drains in my arms.. ran from my elbows through my armpit and to my side about bra band area. 1 in each arm and then I had 1 drain that ran along the under side of my boobs just below bra band. They were all removed by 10 days.

My compression on my arms was not very tight. They couldn't get a little bolero garment that would fit the girls and be tight enough on the arms.

i mean without the garment on- did your arms feel this tight? i sure hope it's only from the swelling! the arms in this garment are not very tight- they needed the bigger one for my boobs, but i'm guessing they'll move me to the smaller size tomorrow.

ahh.. no... they didn't feel overly tight or puffed to me.

Beth - that sounds so painfull - so sorry you had to experience that!!!

Margie - sorry your having a painful time today! Hope things go well in the morning with having the drains removed! Your in my thoughts and prayers!

Margie glad to see that you are feeling better. Do take it easy though as in not pulling weeds. lol I'm so impressed with you and Beth_m. Thank you ladies for sharing your experiences with us. Whenever I want to know something I automatically look to see if Beth, Margie and Coleen have replied to the posts. I don't think I've found one, but a plastic main surgery thread would be a nice addition on the boards or maybe just a site for links to member's surgery blogs.

Will pray for your continued improvement Margie.

Marjie, just checking to see how you are feeling today and what you found out at the doc's office. Hope you are feeling better, but get some rest to get yourself all better!

I try to stay away from this thread because it makes my stomach hurt.

lol

thanks, everyone. i did get my drains out today. the incisions are still a bit raw (my arms were glued, not stitched) and some skin pulled off when they took off the dressings, so they put new steri-strips over everything. the surgeon said my breasts looked "fantastic"- at which point i said, "ah... we do know they are not going to look like this eventually, right?". He laughed, and said they would not. they are still incredibly "wide", but he said i had lots of swelling yet. my weight was down a bit more this morning; the day after surgery when i weighed myself i saw i had gained 9-10#- that's a lot of fluid! i'm now down to about 2# over what i was the morning of surgery, so i guess i'm doing ok.

she wanted me in a tighter arm garment, but it is really tight and i feel like i can't move when i have that one on- so i changed back into the other one (shh... don't tell them). i'll try to tolerate the new one tonight, and maybe it will stretch a bit. but she liked the support from the bra vs. the arm/bra garment, so she wanted me to put the bra on under the other garment. can someone say, "HOT"? It was humid today and i lasted about 5' before i had pulled that off. hopefully the next week is going to be cool.

i decided i'm going to go to goodwill and look for a thin teeny-bopper long-sleeved shirt that is super tight, and possibly wear that for my arms- then cut off the arms below the elbow, and cut off the front of the shirt as well as most of the back- so that the arms are attached only at the top of the back of the shirt. this was the type of garment i wanted them to order originally- i had requested it, but apparently no one followed through on it. if i can find something thin enough, hopefully i can tolerate that, along with the bra, on the warmer days- or for when i take a walk or bike ride. Time to get movin'!

my energy is good today. after my first surgery, i had an 11am post-op appt (6 days after surgery), and was out shopping until 5pm that day- but came home exhausted. today i repeated that scenario, and felt great. so i'd say the recovery for this was a bit faster. last time i took percocet for the first week; this time i only took it for the first 3 days, although i might have had 1 or 2 since then.

this one will definitely take longer in terms of final results. the twins still look ridiculous, and i have a lot of swelling all the way around my upper body, and even into my abdomen (my waist is still 2" bigger than it was the day of surgery). i'm also quite bruised, and the skin is very tender to the touch- especially on my arms. the last time it was harder to move around, get in and out of bed, etc., but there was almost no bruising, and there was very little skin tenderness.

tomorrow i will be one week post op. i feel good enough to take a walk tonight, but my back is quite sore from all the walking around i did today so i'll wait until tomorrow. my plan for the next week is to walk on the treadmill and ride my recumbent exercise bike (although i'll confess i've already done some push-ups against the couch, some arm exercises without weights, and a lot of crunches). i'm also going to do more ab work, and start doing some back extension exercises on my hands and knees. since the weather is going to stay in the 50's for the next 10 days, i shouldn't be too tempted to get on my bike. but after my next post-op visit i'm going to try doing some triking, as well as chipping and putting at the golf course.

well, i've only had pain pills once today- and they're calling me now!

btw- i didn't get the exact amounts, but the surgeon told me he took off roughly a pound (total) from my arms, and another pound from the twins.

Take it easy and rest so your recovery can be easier and quicker! Hugs to you!