surgical recovery and RA

[Guest guest]

hello everyone. Its been awhile since I've posted, I've been

preparing myself for my surgery (breast reduction) and I finally had

it done on tuesday. The doctor expected surgery to last 4-6 hours,

but finished in 3 1/2, he said nothing could have gone more perfect.

He removed 2,380g from my right breast and 2,323g from the left. My

blood loss was minimal and the grafting of the nipples seemed to go

well also. I am currently getting a buzzing feeling in the nipple

areas now, so hopefully that means I will get some sensation after

I've done most of my healing. I ended up being in recovery for almost

5 hours, I came out of surgery with a migraine and extremely

nauseated, at one point I actually through up on my PS, he hung

around because I didn't come out of it well and he wanted to make

sure everything came out ok. After throwing up a couple times and

receiving 160mg of demerol the headache started to break and around

9pm or 9 hours after surgery started I was moved to a " high risk

floor " because of my other health problems. My catheter and pressure

cuffs on my legs were kept on the entire first night, but I was

allowed to get up and walk around with assistance from time to time.

by 5am the following morning I was feeling more like myself and the

catheter and pressure cuffs were removed. My PS came to the hospital

twice that day to check on me and informed me of most of the surgery

and how it went. On thursday morning the PS removed my drains and

signed my paperwork to let me go home. He was more than willing to

let me stay in the hospital longer, if needed, but I really just

wanted to get back home. I am now 4 days post op, and I think muscle

fatigue and swelling are my biggest problems. I'm still retaining

fluids from the IV that I had and moving my arms around is quite

difficult. There is no bruising on either breast and I am amazed at

how " normal " they look. Both nipples are attached to the breasts with

gauze sewn on to them, because they were grafted, that gauze will

most likely be removed in 3-4 days, the rest of the stiches (200 on

each side) will be given a longer time to heal. My outside stiches

are not disolvable so he said he would remove them in about 3 weeks.

On some sites where women have had this done they are up and about

and feeling great. That so much makes me feel like a loser. I'm so

far behind in the recovery aspect. The more I lay around because of

the pain, the harder it is to get my hips working when I need to

walk. I couldn't be happier with the results, but I'm so tired

getting through this. I've been taking the Plaquenil now for almost a

month, and I'm not sure when I'm supposed to be feeling the effects,

but I'm not at all. Not sure what else they do when starting off on

that doesn't help. Another thing thats bothering me is that now that

I've had the surgery so many people are like, there, now you are all

better, you won't have any more problems. I can't get them to see

that big boobs and rheumatoid arthritis and not related. Sometimes I

feel like I'm in a sound proof box that no one can see into. and I'm

screaming and yelling as people walk by but nobody pays any heed to

me. I know its a sorry way to think of things but its how I feel

sometimes and a lot of times lately. I hope you all are doing well

and that you are having a pain free day as much as possible. blessing

and prayers to all of you.

kerri sue