I went in the Monday after surgery to get the drain removed. That was a pretty easy procedure. The nurse told me about how it was going to hurt for 30 to 60 seconds as/after she pulled it out. She removed stitches (which didn’t hurt) and then yanked the drain out. It was a little uncomfortable for like 2 seconds, but I wouldn’t call it painful. Super easy, and then I didn’t need a fucking drain anymore.

She said that the plastic surgeon was there and wanted to see me. So he came in and told me that the margins on the skin side were positive. I already knew coming out of the surgery that the tumor was super close to the skin, and the skin there was super thin because of it, so this wasn’t exactly a surprise, but I would have to come in for another procedure to cut out that little circle of skin. This would mean that I would have less skin, and my tissue expander would have to be slightly deflated, then re-expanded in a couple of stages.

Lameness! but manageable. The surgeon said this was better than having the positive margin be the other way, toward the chest wall.

This would be a way less involved procedure than the original mastectomy – just a sedation (like you would get with a colonoscopy) and local anesthetic. It was scheduled for the following Friday, 5/15, and the plastic surgeon said he would do it.

That was also a super quick procedure. Check-in time was 6:00 a.m. again, but I didn’t have to go to Radiology first – it was just straight to the pre-op station, change into hospital gown, get in the hospital bed, get the IV. I also talked to the anesthesiologist – the same one from before, Dr. Mc-Something, and had vitals taken, made sure I hadn’t eaten since the night before, and got some pre-op meds. Then I was wheeled into the OR, scootched onto the operating bed (it was a little harder this time since my chest was sore), and went right out.

I do remember waking up and hearing them talking in the room, and I said a few inane things – someone said they had 5-year-old twin sons, and I made some inane comment about that – and then it was right back to recovery. I hung out there for a while – they gave me jello and water – and then I felt fine enough to go out. The nurse walked me out to The Mighty Sam in the waiting area, and we headed home. The whole thing only took a couple hours, and I got a new post-op bra.

The pain after was minimal. I didn’t need any oxycodone at all and only took Celebrex for a few days.

I had a follow up phone visit with the plastic surgeon on Wednesday, in which I told him how well I was doing and he explained how the skin removal would affect how we approached the reconstruction process.

And I felt really good all last week. Better and better each day. If I had had to figure out on my own when I was well enough to go back to work I probably would have said last week. As it is I definitely felt well enough to go back on my scheduled day, the day after Memorial Day… today!