Rambling

Saw the surgeon on Tuesday. Finally have the stamina to post about that. I still have the drain, most likely because I use my arms a lot. Since I need them to get me moved around more than most people, since my legs aren't dependable, that's kind of a given. The surgeon said that she wasn't going to ask me to hold still, but she would remind me that moving would make it worse. So I folded clothes in order to do laundry so we could wash the nasty mastectomy bra -- She said I could take it off long enough to wash it and run it through the dryer, so we did. Still, the drainage was less today, and I'm hoping to be able to have this thing out by Friday or Monday. Then I only have to wear the damn bra and pressure artifacts for another 48 hours. At 48.1 hours, the bra goes into the trash, while I sing "I'm Free" from the rock opera Tommy and gently dance around. Then, most likely, I'll take a nap, since that seems to be a lot of my daily schedule these days. I've been wearing this overly tight binder for way too long. The preop estimate was that I'd wear it for two weeks, and that was over Tuesday.

The armpit boob is partially loose skin from the surgery, plus some fat, plus some swelling. She says that it will go down some in the near future, but will take a year for all the rearranging to take place, and even then I'll have some excess skin there. I have excess skin in several places from losing weight, so that's not too upsetting. I'm quite numb from the chest, under the arm, to the back. That's normal, which I already knew, and will improve but not go away. Whee. I'm to see her in 6 weeks, although I need to remember to make that appointment when it's business hours.

I ordered three bras with pockets from Decent Exposures, so when I've healed enough for a prosthesis, I'll have bras to put it in. DE's bras aren't cheap, but they're custom fit and hand made, and less than the mastectomy bras I can expect to get elsewhere. They have high-quality clothes in all sizes, too. I'll eventually be getting more leggings from them as well, I'm sure.

I took the pampering money I was gifted with (Thanks to all of you!) and bought skin oils, some cocoa butter lotion for use on my scar after it heals up, and some nice soaps (of course -- I'm a sucker for good soap. Althaea as usual, came through with lovely products. And folks were so kind that I was able to go shopping for nice new socks at Sock Dreams, where I got toe socks to wear under my sandals, a couple pair of thigh high socks for fun, and some marvelous big cushy chenille socks that are marvelous for tucking my feet into to warm them up. Very luxurious.

I convinced Hubby that I didn't need to go out for Mother's Day -- the sprog wants to go out for her birthday with family and we don't go out so often that going two weeks in a row is kind of overkill. ( I need to make sure local family can all make it.) I did ask for some Breast Cancer Site pink ribbon doodads, and expect to see them around the weekend. Including a toe ring. I have very fine feet and ankles, and reasonably skinny toes. So while rings are usually not available in pudgy square hand size, my toes are in the "one size fits most" range quite comfortably. And I wear sandals as often as possible, too.