WARNING: NSFW / graphic content below.

No, it wasn’t all a bad dream; yes, I did get a tissue expander 😦

During my follow up appointment with Dr. M we discussed the reason for this: with nothing separating the pec muscle and my ribs, the tissue on my left breast adhered to them. This wasn’t a surprise, but Dr. M had to do some extra work to prep the pocket again. He went in through my armpit to avoid messing with the incision site that gave us necrosis and later the breakdown that caused an infection. He shared photos he took during the procedure illustrating the adhesion and how he separated and cauterized it:

This helps explain why my left side hurts so darn much! In addition to the internal sculpting, I also have a large incision and the drain tube in my armpit. Doing my best to not move my left arm! I’m still Norco-ing it up every six hours and the drain has been kicking out close to 100mL/day. I went in on Friday with the expectation that I’d be leaving it behind, but at this rate, I’m not sure we’ll be able to remove it when I go back on Monday.

Next steps?

So now what? Well, the right side looks great! The pocket closure and bump in size to 450ccs seems to have done the trick. The other side needs a lot of work to catch up, though. We must wait a few weeks for things to heal before we begin the expansion process. The tissue expander has 300ccs of saline and our goal is 550ccs (Dr. M over-expands). Last year’s expansions were in increments of 50ccs, every other week. Then we wait four weeks until the exchange, which puts us out to sometime in August. Here’s to another awkward summer!

Now some good news …

I have been downing Sunsweet Prune Juice, oatmeal with flax, and lots of water in an effort to avoid that dreaded post-op constipation. I also tried Smooth Move tea for the first time. I am happy to report: I pooped today! 😀