Sept 14, 2012 - Mastectomy drains

Someone asked me recently about the mastectomy drains. I tried to find some pictures that didn't contain too graphic of a content. Dad said having four tied around my waist make me look like an orkin man coming to spray for termites. Leave it to Dennis to find some humor in the suckiness of drains. (Pun intend). Would really love it if I never visit with these drain again. Click link below to see illustration.

Sept 14, 2012 - Day # 37 -See Spot...grow?

Day 37: The all consuming new spot (see previous blog post), is rallying up in protest of the extensive cleaning regimen. I fear he is outsmarting us. Last night when Ron went to investigate and clean the spot, he noticed it might be looking a little larger and more irritated. This is NOT what we were going for. We decided we should probably start collecting real data by measuring it. (4 x 2 on some sort of unrecognizable engineer ruler Ron has). He also had the brilliant idea of taking a super close up picture of it so I could see it without freaking out from the impostor boob scar. Let's just say, after seeing it I no longer like Barkley, and it's apparent Barkley hates me. I'm stripping him of his adorable Great Dane name. "Spot" is all he gets now. I really need him to go away...and soon before other trouble sets in.

Back to work on Monday for a full 8 hour day in the office. I worked some from home yesterday and today to try and ease myself back.  It's definitely going to require a good amount of transitioning from me. I think that's all I have to say about this right now. Adjusting.


Some random thoughts from this week since this is a short update:

• After some dinner with friends the other night, I realized I'm not the only one critical of myself. We were laughing about how two have noticed their youthful acne has returned, another wants a more perky chest, another thinks her face has aged 10 years in 1 month, another marvels at how her kids now out run her in a sprint. We all complain of heat surges and think we are entering menopause. I guess the troubles of women in their late thirties is uniform. They made me swear to change their names if they showed up in an update- so here's to you Bertha, Frances, and Ethel. = ) With much love, Syvia.
• Since moving my updates from facebook to this blog, I am truly missing the back and forth dialogue from you all. It felt more like an informal sharing of each others stories than a monologue to an empty screen. While there is some personal comfort in the empty screen, the encouragement from you and hearing your own stories as a reader is greatly missed.
• When I head back to work, I'm going to miss my tattoo parlor hours I've been keeping. Not setting an alarm every day really works for me on just about every level.
• Happy to report my pain level is down to a 2-3 out of 10 as long as I am not driving or manipulating the wound. I have been really looking forward to that! My surgeon and I were laughing that we should change the pain scale from numbers (2 out of 10) to a scale of smiling boob faces instead. You would rate a frowny boob up to an ecstatic boob. These are the things mastectomy patients talk about after reconstruction. It's inevitable.
• Lastly, I'm intrigued that someone in Russia is following my updates (Along with canada, germany, tanzania, great britian, and mexico). I think know everyone except for maybe my Russian and German reader. I'd love to hear from you and find out more about you.