After breezing through the recovery from the mastectomy and initial reconstruction and implant expansion, I hit a wall this week.
To recap: On day 17, the doc drew a lot of fluid out from around the implant and injected more saline into the implant, hoping to fill the breast cavity and minimize the space for fluid to accumulate and to increase the stretch of skin and muscle. The next day, (Day 18) the pressure/grinding sensation from (apparently) the expanded implant against my ribs was really starting to hurt…and for me to say that means others would be in real pain. The muscle on top was sore, as I’d expect. But that didn’t bother me nearly as much as the moving, grinding bubble (or whatever it is) deeper in the breast. So I took an Aleve during the day, and another at bedtime.
Night 19 was the worst night I’ve had so far. Even with an Aleve at bedtime, I was awake off and on all night. To make matters worse, I had dull pains in both my upper legs near the hips. It was just enough to keep me from getting comfortable. I’ve never had such pains and worried that they might be associated with the pain killers. Fortunately they were gone after I was up and did not recur last night (night 20).
Yesterday, Day 20, I broke down and took one of the Darvocets (100 mg). The breast wasn’t hurting much but I wanted to test drive the medicine while I was awake in case I needed to take it at night. I made sure I ate something first to prevent stomach problems/nausea.
Well, let me just say that I will NEVER take Darvocet again. When it hit, it hit me like a ton of bricks. And not in a good way. My head started to drift off spinning and I felt slightly nauseated and dopey. I had to stop what I was doing, lie down and stay still for the next 4 hours till it wore off. And even then, the swimming-head, vision/motion-sensitive sensation has not completely gone away today. It feels the way my head has felt going into or coming out of a vertigo attack, and I never EVER want to get one of those again.
This is not the best news, considering that we’re heading out tomorrow morning for a 7-hour roadtrip to Arkansas. I hope it passes completely by then. And in case it doesn’t I’m taking along my arsenal of meds for nausea and vertigo.
At any rate, today, Day 21, the pressure has eased up on the breast and I actually had a pretty good night’s sleep last night… with no pain meds at all. I didn’t try to sleep on my right except briefly a couple of times to relieve the left side. And I put a pillow between my legs, which felt pretty good. No more leg/hip pains so I hope that was just a fluke.
The breast is bubbling/moving around again more than it did after the fill on Day 17 but it no longer draws my attention to it all day long…only when I move a certain way. I was thinking of calling the doc to get in to see him today, but decided to leave well enough alone. I have an appt to see him next Thurs and will leave it at that for now.
I think I’ll go give myself an early allergy shot just to make sure there are no allergy contributions to my swimmyhead. And I need to finish packing.
Have a great weekend everyone.
