Breast Reconstruction Surgery (followed by a four day stint in the hospital and home for recovery

Disclosures: I am not a doctor. I am not a nurse. I am not a medical professional whatsoever. If you are concerned about your health, I encourage you to talk to your doctor. This post contains a few affiliate links. If you click them and buy something, I might earn a small commission, at no cost to you. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. All opinions are my own. I am also NOT a photographer. I work at a creative firm and we hire photographers. My photography is quite, well, awful. 

On Monday, woke up early and got my last wii fit workout in before Tony would drop me off at Baylor for surgery. At least when I get back on wii, I’ll only be reprimanded in a snarky way multiple times about it being 9 days since my last session, and how important it is that even doing a daily body test is enough. 

If you have a wii fit, you know it does NOT like you to take any time off and reprimands you.

And, I took my Fitbit off. Not going to Baylor with me. They wouldn’t let me wear it anyway with all of the other stuff going on and don’t think I’ll really care how many steps I take.

Tony and Abby drop me off at Baylor. It’s a big place – they have a paper map (anyone who reads any of my motorcycle blog posts know I LOVE paper maps!). 

Baylor has a paper map (the orange is parking, with the one in the center being 4 and the most convenient). 

Mask up and off I go. First to the first floor “check in lobby.” – they really like to sanitize after each person checks in. Nice! The check in lady is lefthanded and hands me a purple folder to give to the person who picks me up (if you read my last pre-pre op post, you don’t really know what happens each time, and Baylor is a new hospital for me). 

At least their TV was on NBC 5 news, not Fox news.

No typos in their dual language signage that I could find.

My purple plastic folder.

She picks me up and shows me my “get ready area” – first one, right next to the exit door for a quick escape (people also use this door to take the stairs). Find out that here I don’t have to pee in a cup, so I pee before putting on their required “outfit” – socks that are way too big (XL) and a crunchy lavender robe thing – kind of nice because it hooks up to a Bair hug machine (ha, I like bears) that heats you up with a vacuum thing. Someone comes in and asks the questions I’m used to – allergies, kind of surgery, doctor, birthday, etc.

But not as many questions as Baylor. She also sets up my IV thing (this hurts – wish they could have just plugged into my chemo port). And then I wait. And wait. Surgery is for 730 am, but at 700 am I am still waiting for Dr. Beale and the anesthesiologist (who didn’t call the night before). 

They scan a lot at Baylor. The red band is for allergies. The IV -- hurts.

My view and escape route before surgery if necessary.

The Bair hug heater thing. Wonder if  they make something for home snuggy heaters.

They get here and Dr. Beale writes all over my chest and stomach, down to my crotch. The anesthesiologists asks a few things – ALL of them call their cocktail a margarita. What if I want a Beam on the rocks?

Next thing I know, they give me a cocktail. And then are talking me out of anesthesia. Very bright lights. Have no idea about our conversation. And eventually someone comes to take me to my room. A long trip that I think involved three elevators! Couldn’t get there to there on my own without my map – or even with my map!

Get to my room and Tony is already there. I have a “suite” with a conference room table? That’d be perfect if I were allowed multiple visitors! We could have meetings at Baylor. Bring my printer. Be all good (but wifi sucks as I find out later). I get help getting rolled onto my new bed for the next four days – this one is new, only a week old. Has extra bells and whistles, including a USB plug!

Get to roll over so they can look for bed sores (they say they will do this each shift, but only happened twice). I’m told that not even ice chips tonight (I think it’s about 7 pm at this point) and that Natalie will be my night nurse and check with me every hour to look at my flaps – they didn’t tell me about the other person who checks in every four or so hours to take your vitals (blood pressure, temp). I have a catheter (which I don’t really know how it works, but it does) so peeing won’t be a thing to worry about. I’m not supposed to get out of the bed until perhaps the next day, hopefully.

Tony heads home (after showing how to use my TV remote -- no Golf Channel) since I’m not going to be much for much. Not that you sleep when you get woken up every hour. Natalie was great and she tried to do her checks without turning on lights, using a flashlight. The vital people on this shift really liked their lights.

According to Tony, all went well. I do have another machine because they went pretty tight to get fat – I think they call it a medical vac (Al had one for his hand – mine is smaller and “cuter.”).

Surgery over and hospital stay continues for the next three more days, with hopeful checkout on Thursday! And, it doesn’t seem that I have to mask up while I’m here in my room. That makes things easier.

Another last note: I know that October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month, but I really have no desire to wear pink, go pink, talk about all of this because it’s Breast Cancer Awareness Month. I also am writing this blog while many of my friends/family don’t maybe even know about this year of BC. I believe in causes, but guess I rebel against a certain month or color.