Day 8 After the Mastectomy

First I want to thank all of you that have been sending me messages of encouragement and how I have been helping you through this journaling process. I am so grateful that I am able to show others what their experience might be like. I am also very grateful for all the prayers that helped me keep calm and healthy through this. I may not be able to thank all you individually but I will always remember your kindness.

Today has been much better as far as doing things more independently, but I do still have limits and it's hard to remember those limits when I feel like I can do it. I find it is difficult to reach for things off the shelves in my cabinets or to reach for the shampoo in the ledge in the shower. This is kind of embarrassing, but it's also hard to wipe after using the restroom.

Now on to the pictures. As you see in the first there is something yellow just under my breast that is hard like a rib but it is not a rib. My guess is that it is alloderm, or cadaver skin to help hold the implant in place. It's just really weird how both sides look completely different. By the way the wrinkles across my breasts are from the bra that I have to wear 24/7. Today I didn't sleep nearly as much but the pain drugs still make me completely unbalanced when I try to walk. I'll talk more about this to the doctor tomorrow. I'm pretty sure I'm seeing doctors weekly for a while. I thought it was interesting that one of my doctors wants me to continue to take the Valium long after the Norco (pain pills) to help with the muscle spasms as they try to readjust. I feel like I'm on a slew of medicines right now since I need benadryl for the side effects of the pain pills, antibiotics, Valium, and then a stool softener to counter act all the drugs.