Surgery with Karidis 29/11/12 With Pics

[sjwsjw]

OK this is it, my turn

After finding this forum and spending hours reading everyone that made one of these boards suddenly i find myself just 3 days away from my own story.

Everyone here knows what this is like (to me the single best thing about this forum) so i won't type all that out.

Without this forum and you lot i wouldn't be even close to such a moment so thanks to everyone that has logged their personal progress and those that have answered my questions to get me this far. If i can help anyone get to the point i am now with my story then all the better, i feel that i own that to this forum and it's always useful to see progression, so here goes.

The time has actually flown by after what at the time seems a reasonable wait and after my consultation with Karidis on 15th Oct i managed to get the date of 29th Nov for the surgery.

Im quite a last minute sort of person so i haven't exactly sorted out what i need for the day of surgrey (any help with what to buy now would be great, no doubt i'll forget something).

I'll get pictures up over the next day or 2, just made this board now as a reminder to myself to make sure i do it  

[improving]

Congrats So many people are getting it sorted at the moment. This forum has been pretty active over the past month or so. It's great to see!

Things I bought was Arnica, pineapple juice, bio oil, a zip up top, dvd's/computer games for post op. That's about it I think. I also picked up plaster remover for my dressings but being with karadis i believe you're straight into a compression vest!

All the best, look forward to your write up!

[sjwsjw]

Not gunna win any photography awards but i managed some pics

[sjwsjw]

Couple more

[sjwsjw]

Thanks improving, yea it does seem to go through mad stages of activity surgrey wise around here

[Ricardo7]

one more day sjwsjw, the very best of luck. You're in good hands, you'll be gyno free tomorrow!

[sjwsjw]

Cheers mate, last day at work tomorrow for 17 days, I go back for one week then have another two and a half weeks off for Christmas lol

[Stem]

Good luck mate!

[sjwsjw]

Cheers stem, hope yours went well today.

Time for bed, up at 5am to get ready and travel. Probably post an update on Friday.

[Pez2]

Hope it all goes well. 

[sjwsjw]

All went fine. Yesterday was a 20 hour ordeal so I'm just pretty knackered. I'll write up full sometime over the weekend. Gunna try get a shower and take some photos.

[sjwsjw]

OK so i now feel up to the write up

Op Day
I was due in the hospital for 10am, its 20minutes to the train station and 3 hours on the train so it was always going to be an early start.

The day before i'd been called by one of Karidis' nurses and because of the time i was due in to hospial was told not to eat anything after 5am the next day. After 4 hours sleep the night before i woke up at 4:30am and managed to eat about 3 mouthfuls, it was way too early to be eating so i gave up on the rest. I got ready and in the end only took a bag with a new set of comfortable clothes (loose fitting, button up shirt and all that jazz) and a pair of slippers.

I arrived at the hospital at 9:50am, told the reception i was here, they took their fee's and i was asked to wait to be collected. About 15minutes later a nurse came and took me to my room. Another nurse then took over and took my stats, asked me the standard questions and said Karidis would be down to see me soon. In the mean time i filled in the food menu

The room was nice enough, the bed was actually pretty comfortable and the TV passed the time quick enough even if it was daytime crap. The staff were very friendly and made my guest a few cups of tea with biscuits while we waited.

Karidis came down at about 11:30am and asked how i was doing/if i had any questions and told me that he was running a bit late today and that it would be my turn in about 2 hours. He gave me the consent forms and said he would be back to mark me up and take some photos before hand. This is when i changed into the lovely "hospital clothes" complete with tights

At about 1:20pm he came back, marked me up and took the photos he took my form then 20minutes later it was my turn and i was called to thertre. I walked down feeling fine, laid on the bed and the anesthetist came in. Again i was asked a few medial questions, after which he made some small talk to slip the needle in. A couple of minutes later and he told me "this first one will make you feel a little bit sleepy" (my que to look at the clock and see how long i can last) 1:50pm. I counted about 6 seconds and wasn't even a little bit sleepy!...

...Next thing i know im waking up with a nurse telling me everything went fine and that its 3:20pm.

I felt fine, sleepy but no pain at all, i was pretty surprised about the lack of pain tbh. The next couple of hours were a bit of a blur, i remember moments within the hours that past but i wasn't properly with it until about 5:45pm. The nurses had been in checking my stats a lot and i was brought my food. I managed to eat all the crisps, half the sandwich and of course all the ice cream

Next task was going to the toilet. I drank a lot after surgrey and was reminded i had to "go" before i could go home.

Getting up out of bed was a mission and i got really hot, even thought the window had been open since i'd been back. I managed to go and it was easier then i was expecting but i was very dizzy.

Just before 7pm the nurse came in and said that it was a day ward and that because i had a 3 hour train journy to get home that i should go to another ward where the night staff where. She got my a wheelchair and i was taken up to the next floor just to chill out for a bit longer.

I managed to feel OK and manged to walk a distance in the hospital without feeling dizzy just 50minutes later. The last train back left London at 21:00 and we was told that a taxi to the station normally takes about 40minutes so we asked if they could arrange one asap. 25minutes later the taxi turned up, it was going to be close -_- Following a sat nav which sent us down 2 dead ends on the way we got to the station at 20:57 and made it to the train with 10seconds to spare.

After an hour and a half on that train we had to change, obv sods law says you have to walk over a bridge to get to the other platform when you've just had an op and the guy at the front of our train said "oh, this is your train? you'll have to ask the conductor i've just told him to go. You should have shouted" LOL. Anyway, we made it and i got home just before midnight and apart from the rushing around i felt fine, no pain.

[sjwsjw]

Day 1 post op
Day 1 started pretty much as the last had ended. I wasn't in any pain and had managed to sleep pretty well on my back (prob has something to do with the crazy long day i had before). The vest felt fine and apart from getting in and out of bed being a little bit scary things were easier then i was expecting.

I had the odd pain but i think this was pulling from the super strength sticky tape the hospital uses to banage you up just pulling at your skin if you stretch too much.

I spent most the day in bed and had someone to help me if i wanted and food or drink so the morning and afternoon went by fairly easy

I wanted to get the bandages off to give me a little bit more movement and try make things a little bit more comfortable. I wanted til the evening and got a shower. This was much harder then i was expecting it to be. I took things easy and it must have taken me 30-40mins to remove the vest and all the bandages from my chest and then be able to stand up!

Once they were off i had a picture of it taken then got into the shower and washed as much as i was able to.



Once i had put the plasters and the vest back on i had a bit more movement but with that i also had the start of a bit of pain, so i took some pain killers and went back to bed.

[sjwsjw]

Day 2 post op
Day 2 was tough!

I didn't have any help day 2 because everyone was working, i hadn't really thought anything through so i hadn't asked for anything to be lowered to a height i could reach. The pain had started to be a bit more regular, but when i say pain its more of an odd sensation. A sharp shooting numbness around the nipple area, followed by a feeling of liquid coming out of the nipple (which i though must have been the fulid they tell you will come out over the first few hours).

After a pretty frustrating day of not being able to get or do much i had some help in the evening, got some food and then went to get a shower feeling like the plasters around my nipples were fit to burst with all this liquid. Strange thing was...totally dry, it was just a feeling, very odd. Again i showered as much as i could but not able to get a proper shower yet. I still hadn't passed any food by this point and my gut was feeling VERY bloated also, i had some pretty bad pains from my gut and that evening it was more uncomfortable then my chest was. I took the painkiller and the lax.

[sjwsjw]

Day 3 post op
Day 3 was a little easier, started to get use to things and movement had started to improve here. I keep up the painkillers and the lax and that evening i finally went

I had help all through day 3 but i was still spending most the time laying in bed, i couldn't even sit up without getting a back ache which was a little bit frustrating

Day 4 post op
I was on my own again day 4 but i had learnt from day 2 and the night before had asked for everything i might need to be moved to a level i can reach it. I managed to grab a couple of meals and again spent most of the day laying in bed, by this point the vest was getting a little annoying and had started to cut into me under the arm area, i get a bit frustrated with the vest and look forward to the little rest the shower brings and sleeping on my bad is getting annoying also lol. I took another picture once the bandages were off day 4...