Thanks to the information found on this message board, I decided to have gyne. surgery. The operation took place Monday, July 23 and lasted about 4 hours. I was probably a 6/10 and will post before/after pics on a seperate thread at the end of this week along with the surgery details. My PS did an EXCELLENT job and I feel so relieved. However, I wanted to warn everyone who just had the procedure or who is thinking about having it done.
Sunday night, ~6.5 days after surgery I was feeling great (little sore still) and was even able to wear reg. shirts instead of button-ups. I had drains removed that Thursday and felt I could drive and do a fair amount of arm movement. I still had the compression vest on at all times with the exception of showering. Well, I was looking under my bed for something and didn't feel as though I was straining myself, but I guess I did. At 1:45am I got into bed on my back and tried to fall asleep. I felt a tickle under my right nipple and it started to feel a little swolen. I just thought it was normal even though my chest has been very flat since surgery. It started to hurt a little so I got up and went to look in a mirror. Within 3 minutes, my right side was the size of an orange. My left was still flat. I started to freak out because the compression vest was expanding so much so I called the doc's office. I called my parents and they took my to the hospital to meet the doc there at about 2:15am. By that time my right boob was the size of a grapefruit...bigger than what my hand could grasp. It hurt like hell and I thought a simple drain would fix it. Nope. The hospital was putting together a full surgery team because they had to go in and drain the blood. Turns out an artery busted (hematoma) and it filled the whole side with a ton of blood. I was worried because I ate a big meal at 11:30pm and I had to go under gen. anesthesia. The operation only took 1.5 hrs and they burnt the artery to stop it from happening again. Everything was fine - recovery was easier because of the shorter duration, but I do feel a little pain on my nipple. He had to re-stitch it and put another drain in just to be safe. I will meet with the PS Thursday to get the drain out and to remove the stitches on my left nipple.
I'm on vicodin right now so sorry for rambling. I just wanted to warn everyone that this crap can happen and even though you may feel ready to do normal activity a week later - BE CAREFUL. Just take it easy and try to milk your friends/fam's hospitality that know about the surgery for all it's worth
. Everyone around me has been very helpful but I guess I thought I healed a lot faster than I actually did. Once again I will be posting more stuff on the surgery and before/after pics once I get the drain removed this week.