Recovery Stage 2

Well it's almost a week and a half since the surgery and I am completely off the pain meds - can you believe that! What hurts the most these days is my back. I still have to walk like an 80 year old lady and sleep on my back so muscles that normally don't support me have been and they are angry about it. Other than that, things are fine. They took my drains out on Tuesday. If I could liken that to anything it would probably be what it would feel like (on a mild scale) to be disemboweled. Figure after about a week some of my inside body tissue had started forming to the tubes thinking it was a new part of my body. Well, when those tubes were yanked from my insides (Dane says they were a good 10 inches up in my abdominal) the tissues that started binding the tubes to my innards where severed. You can imagine how that felt. I let out a few cuss words but after a few minutes everything calmed down and I was okay again. But I'll be a happy camper if I never have to experience anything like that again.

After my doc appointment on Tuesday, Dane left for work in Olympia and Nick came over to care for me and switch cars. My mom was due in town that evening and can't drive clutch so Nick offered us his automatic Mustang. Well no sooner did he get here did he go into some sort of shock and I had to care for him till his dad got here and take him to the ER. Turns out he now has tonsilitis (he just recovered from menengitis) and a possible blood clot in his lungs. So that sucked because I was supposed to stay relatively inactive and ended up caring for poor Nick. Who is doing okay but still in the hospital. Dane had to come home to care for me but by the time he got home in traffic, it was time for him to pick up my mom. Once my mom was in town we stayed up till 1 talking about anything and everything. It is really great to have her here to help and care for me the way that only moms can do.

Yesterday we actually went to the mall and grocery store which was way more activity than I should have done and I was exhausted. Then HG picked me up for a team meeting. That was cool to be back in the land of the living and coherent. Today I've been off the pain meds and doing my homework, emails, and Mom and I made some crucial wedding detail decisions. We are going to look at wedding dresses tomorrow. I can't try any on cause my body is still changing and morphing but we can figure out what I like and if it's possible for my mom to remotely tailor my gown because I will definitely be a unique size after all this surgery.

In other news I got a call this am from my CEO at Treehouse (TH) and I guess my boss, the Director of Admin Barbara, has resigned! So her last day will be in March and she will work with me to transition and make everything as smooth as possible, but that came as a shock to me. I was really looking forward to working with her. But Janis, my CEO, made it clear they were very excited for me to start and ensured me I would have every resource made available to help me excel in every way. We even discussed the accounting software training. I elected to have the consult come help me after I've gotten my feet wet a bit so I know what questions to ask rather than have him train me from the get go - I'm a smart gal, I can stumble my way through a lot without too much assistance. I asked if I could bring my mom by the office and she said that would be wonderful and overall I'm just so happy to be starting there soon -what a great opportunity. AND I guess I will be a part of the hiring process for the new Director of Admin - I'm gonna hire my new boss! How crazy is that! I HAVE A VOICE AGAIN!!!!!

I got a call from a coworker today that unfortunately I couldn't help out too much (at TSA). She says she misses me already and is really overwhelmed with all the work. I guess another employee took the week off (God knows how she got that approved, it wasn't planned though so I hope everything is okay). So now there are two gals keeping the 30+ corps at DHQ moving along. Wow. I feel bad for them. I'm still sad to be leaving. But I'm so happy it's on good terms.

So I'm not supposed to make any judgements till at least four weeks (and I wont post any pics till I'm healed - they're pretty nasty right now) but I can say this. WOW!!!! I'm absolutely stunned at the results. The night I went to surgery my measurements were 41/37/48 and I weighed in at 170 (amazing because last I checked I was 180 so all this vegan dieting and exercising must be doing something). Today, with my garments on and gauze underneath and still a moderate amount of swelling that will take a few weeks to subside, my measurements were 42/34/44. The Doc took 3 inches off my waist and 4 inches off my hips! And I'm still pretty swollen. The Doc and everyone expect me to calm down to about 40 inches at the hips over the next few weeks. As I continue to diet and exercise, I should drop at least another 1 - 2 inches (if not more) between April and the wedding. Amazing. Now bra size is a little different. I was a 38C before surgery but I wasn't a "full" C cup. I tried putting on my bra last night (over my garments so as not to harm my still healing bossom) and there is no way that bra will fit. First of all it's too big around, so I probably will drop to a 36 or 34. And the C cup is too small, so I will have to upgrade to a D cup. The thought of being a 34D has me grinning from ear to ear. Call it selfish, call it foolish, call it materialistic, call it vain, call it whatever you want - you're right! But I'm still happy. :-)

When I lay down now, the boobs stay in place. I have no belly - it's flat. No rolls, no creases, no flabby skin - nothing. I've never layed down and been able to see my hips and all my parts - it looks and feels so good! And (for as grafic as this may be) I have a vagina again! Now that my belly is gone and the skin is pulled tight - I have "normal" junk. And let me tell you how good THAT is!! It just looks and feels so much better. I'm not even all healed and I still have WEEKS to go and I'm already this pleased. I think that I made a good decision and I would do it again in a heartbeat. Yeah, sure - it's going to cost a lot of money and it was a bit extreme, but what a difference.

Dane can't wait for me to get better. He's anxious (as am I) to try everything out. He's been afraid to touch me because he doesn't want to hurt me so last night he took his first poke at my boobie. He was immediately enthralled. They don't really look or feel unnatural, just full. That's the best way to describe it.

I also discovered that my PAP came back abnormal and I need a colposcopy (again). LAME. So I have to work out getting that done but the challenges are: I'm still healing from surgery, I have transitioning insurance, and a new job to consider. Dane and I are trying to design things so that we wont have to go months and months without any loving but things are difficult. In light of these discoveries and with my IUD expiration we've decided that Mr. Man is going to get a vasectomy. He doesn't want to talk about it. :-) That's what he says but he knows, logically, that it's the best thing we can do. He just doesn't want to think about knifes being down there. I told him it'd be okay and to hand me more gauze for my oozing stitches and scars. :-)

That's all for now, more as the weekend develops with stories of mom, the wedding dress, the doctor appointments, and so on!