Hey folks, sorry for slacking on the thread. A lot has happened as of late. Here goes.
I went back on Friday to get my dressing removed. Surprisingly, taking off the dressing was pretty painful, more so on the right side of my chest. My guess is that it was a combination of the change of pressure, and that the wounds began healing and sticking to the medical pads placed over each nipple. But that pain only lasted an hour or so.
Visually, the results were amazing! For only 5 days post-op, I was very impressed. Symmetry was great, bruising and bleeding were extremely minimal. I was very happy. I had to place band-aids over the wounds, because he left them slightly open to allow for any drainage. For Friday and Saturday throughout the day, things went great. Then things went awry...
Saturday evening, I did something foolish. Very, very foolish. I went out as the designated driver for my friends birthday. We went out for a night on the town and went to a nightclub. I thought I would just be hanging out in the background, and would be limiting myself to driving and walking the streets. For the most part I did. But two things happened to the right side of my chest. First, I was entering the car and forgot I had moved the seat all the way forward. I sat down, and went to turn my body to the right to face forward. My arm and shoulder were right up against the steering wheel, and as I turned I compressed my chest muscle which resulted in an extremely painful, very scary "crunching" sensation in my chest. At first I thought I ripped the stitches and would have to reveal to my friends that I had my procedure and would have to go to an ER. Luckily, that didn't happen, and after checking myself out in a mirror, everything looked fine. It was just a little sore. Later that night, someone bumped their shoulder rather forcefully into the same spot. Again, unspeakable pain but no bleeding. I was worried. Later that night, I noticed how unbelievable sore my chest was, and I looked at it and boom. Holy shit. There was a baseball under my right nipple. I don't know how but I managed to stay calm and get my friends home.
I got home and got my dad to check me out. He was concerned and called my plastic surgeons office at 4 AM. He claimed an emergency and talked to someone who redirected him to another plastic surgeon He said to come down to White Plains for 8AM. I got a couple hours sleep and we headed down.
Turns out I had a hematoma. People, this was one of the most painful things I've ever experienced. Anyway, the Dr. was very kind and comforting and he took me in and drained my hematoma. It was a painful experience but less painful than the hematoma itself. He actually did it for me free of charge. I am now wearing another compression dressing and have a small drain in place in my right breast.
It is flat again, thank God. I'm scheduled to go back to Dr.on Wednesday morning to check me out. People, when you get your surgeries done, don't go out unless you know you will not have any physical contact. Also don't take ibuprofen like I did (I somehow missed it on the list of medications to avoid.)
Anyway, things are not going too bad considering what happened. I'm in for a longer recovery process but I'm confident.
Topic: Surgery Tomorrow! (Read 4743 times)
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