A Treat for Halloween 2011

On Halloween (oh, the irony!), I went in for my first post-op with the plastic surgeon. Joshua, mom, and Sandy also came. It was a rough ride there; the nausea set in quickly and I focused on breathing deeply and getting fresh air. Ick - really dislike that feeling. We will be visiting the plastic surgeon's office weekly for at least 6-8 weeks for follow-ups and fills. On this particular day, I learned that I'd get both of my pain med intake tubes out and my lymph drain tube out. Yay!

The PA (Jill, a wonderful gal with an evilish laugh that I both love and fear) had me breath in and out slowly and deeply to help me focus on something other than the long tubes getting taken out of my body.

First up: the pain med intake tubes:

Not a biggie. They were small in diameter.
Pretty long, though (~9in, methinks).

Then the lymph drain tube came out. The other one you see here was left in to drain the right breast area:

Bigger tube = a bit more uncomfort when coming out.
The lymph tube pulled out was ~7-8in long.

Here's all the stuff that came off or out of me that first visit:

Caveat for the literals reading this: not the tweezers, scissors, or gauze!

There was much to rejoice about after this first pre-op: my healing post-surgery was on track, I had three less tubes in me, and we all dressed up a little for the holiday. Also, the nausea from the car ride up there had worn off. So we all decided to go celebrate!

At WaterCourse - a vegetarian restaurant.