This is how I am feeling today. Minus those amazing arms of course.Yesterday I had my nipple reconstruction surgery. After watching numerous vidoes on YouTube (dumb dumb dumb!!!!) before surgery, I walked into the plastic surgeons office full of anxiety. I was worried about not only the surgery, but the outcome. I am now 8 weeks out and am feeling great! I have started running again, have gone braless numerous times much to the jealousy of my coworkers and am really feeling good. So the thought of another surgery, even though it is considered minor, was not really high on my excitement list.
I have also been worried about the outcome in terms of how I am going to look with my new nipples. Am I always going to appear cold? And mind you, this is a very valid concern and for all the ladies reading I know that they understand this concern! My plastic surgeon has insisted that once the swelling goes down, I will not always look cold. Oh, and once I get to stop wearing these awesome plastic covers. Which leads me to my next picture:
So lets talk about the surgery. I was awake. The whole time. And I watched. Crazy.
They had me sit in a chair very similar to a dentist chair and then they cranked the radio. So while Dr. S was working on creating me some new nipples, I was jamming to some Prince and Moves Like Jagger. Apparently this was bring your intern to work day, so not only was my doctor there, but my husband, another doctor, and a male intern. It was a very (not) comfortable setting. But now that I have had a baby and gone through all of this boob stuff, I could probably strip in front of anyone without a care in the world! (no honey, I won't don't worry!)
So after sitting in the dentist chair, Dr. S took out his sharpie and drew crazy designs on my breasts to show where to cut and then he took out a needle and injected some numbing medicine. Now I may be mostly numb in that area anyways, but I definitely felt some of those needle pricks. Not the most pleasant place to have needles injected. But it worked, and when they began the process, I felt nothing, thankfully!
My curiosity won and I watched the entire thing! It was a very surreal moment. I watched as Dr. S cut out the skin flap, sewed shut the incision, and then folded the flap over to make the nipple. The only truly gross part was when he cut some of the skin off. That was gross. Really gross. But, other then that, I am actually glad I watched. After all, it's not everyday you get to watch your nipples being created.
Oh, and did I mention the whole surgery took less then 30 minutes!! So crazy.
I have had practically no pain which is fantastic. Even after the numbing wore off. In fact, I have no idea when it wore off. There have been a couple little twinges here and there, but nothing bad. The worst part so far has been the bleeding. The plastic part that is covering each nipple is the end of a syringe that they cut off. Then they have these special bandaids with holes in them that cover the edge of the plastic to keep them on. This leaves the top open so that air can get in. Unfortunately for my shirt, I bled a lot last night and it bled through my compression bra, onto my shirt, and even dripped a little on my stomach which was gross. It did clot over the night but when I was doing laundry and lifting my baby, it cracked open a little.
Over all, the nipple reconstruction process has been a piece of cake, especially when you consider what I have already been through. I have to wear my "fembot" pieces for a couple weeks which will make picking out outfits interesting. It's a good thing I have lots of scarfs! I go in 10 days to get the stitches out and in 6 weeks I get to pick out some color for the areola tattooing.
Life sure takes you to interesting places! I don't know about anyone else, but I am feeling a little like dancing....Vogue anyone??
