ObesityHelp

 

"You're marginally more attractive and substantially less interesting."

These words devastated me when they came from someone whose opinion I value, someone who I consider to be an exceedingly intelligent and insightful individual. He said it to me last night as we were chatting online. I was talking about my breast lift/augmentation recovery, the swelling, the pills, the doubts, the joy, the pain, all of it. I had it done 2 weeks ago. I'm still stuck at home, still tired, still have too much time to stand naked in front of my mirror and alternately agonize/celebrate.

 Oh my goodness. The swelling. The itching. The bloating!!! I really can't complain that much about pain, because I'm still just extremely sore, in my pecs. Nothing sharp, just achey, like I've overused them. But my upper chest has swollen even more, I look like Arnold Schwarzenegger on top. The skin is a little hot to the touch but I'm not running a fever, I think it's just stretched so tight. My incisions under the breast (in the crease) are itchy, as are the stitches around my right nipple. But as long as I keep myself occupied I can keep from messing with them. When I changed the bandages I was SHOCKED at how sensitive my nipples were, I couldn't even stand to touch them. Well I guess I won't need to worry about loss of nipple sensation then! 

I look like I'm 3 months pregnant, my tummy is swollen, so are my upper arms. My elbows are very sore. I was super stressed because I hadn't had a BM since before the surgery on thursday so I finally broke down and got a fleet enema. TIP: you need to *take the cap off* the nozzle before attempting to use. In my defense, I was groggy on pain meds. I eventually figured it out, and got things moving. Phew. 

My ex-boyfriend, who lives across the country, called me the other night. He didn't know I'd gotten this surgery. When I told him, he was shocked. But once we talked about it a little more he was curiously excited. He oh-so-kindly offered to fly out to visit me once I'm healed. *snort* Yeah, who wants to bet that he just wants to be the first to take my new chimichangas on a test-run. Not happening. But I did text him a (clothed) pic, just so he knows what he's missing out on. 

I'm finding that my stomach capacity has shrunk considerably in the last few days, probably because of internal swelling. I wasn't expecting it with this surgery because it's up in my chest, but my stomach has swollen and I think is compressing my sleeve. I was so worried about gaining weight during this recovery but I can only fit in 2-3 bites now so if anything I think I'll end up losing weight (once all this danged swelling and water weight goes away). I'm doing my best to focus on protein smoothies now because I need it for healing. 

It will be even more of an issue after my tummy tuck. I'm going to ask my surgeon if there are liquid antibiotics he can put me on after that one, because the antibiotic pills I'm on now are very large and one of them got stuck this morning, it was very painful for about 20 mins before I was able to dislodge it by slurping down some mushed up banana and water. 

One last thing: valium. I love it. It's a wonder drug. It relaxes my chest muscles, puts me in a zen state where nothing can go wrong, lets me drift off onto a cloud of peacefulness. god bless america. god bless valium.