Ok, I am officially changing my stance. So having your ACL reconstructed blows big monkey chunks, yes. And the pain is wildly excruciating the first I dunno 3-4 days. But after that things settle down and you get back to life as normal and take some prescription ibuprofen and you’re fine. I mean ok, you are not *fine* but you’re mobile, things kinda hurt but you are in rehab and you can do most things. For example going to work is awkward because you know you have a giant brace, but not because it is hard to sit up or you are in crazy amounts of pain.
Breast Reduction, not so much. Like for real not so much. I have not had this much consistent pain… well, ever, in my life. I mean I’m on day 18 and I really honestly need to take vicodin to be able to sleep. I’m also taking valium but I feel like that’s more for comfort than the fact that it works on me. Because really if I take the valium nothing happens… maybe I’m just too relaxed a person but I’m kinda ticked off because I would like it to do something. At least vicodin is pretty good at knocking me out. Going to work is exhausting. Sitting up can be exhausting. I don’t have much of an appetite which could be partially due to the cocktail of drugs I’m taking, though it is getting better every day.
One of the things I didn’t think about when I got this surgery is how limiting it is. I mean it’s difficult to move your arms. Today is the first day I could shower and actually lift my arms enough to reach the back of my head so I could shampoo my hair normally without twisting in weird positions. And I can finally put my arms down at my sides. I just got my sutures out, which was definitely painful when my doctor was digging around in my wounds, however since my boss was nice enough to let me work from home lying down has helped a lot. (I thank whatever powers that be every day that I have a job where I can lie down and use a computer to do because if I didn’t get breaks like this every few weeks with this kinda surgery, I don’t know how I would be able to keep my job.)
Also one of the more horrifying things about this recovery is that I’ve been oozing into my bandages which I have wear in lieu of a bra for the past 2 or so weeks, which is gross. Then again my doctor was also you know digging around in my wounds to get to the sutures so that was also not a very fun experience. And while getting the sutures out I was basically gushing blood, which my doctor called oozing. I kinda want to be like, actually you just went through 8 pads being soaked in blood. I’m not sure I would call that oozing, I would call that bleeding, thank you. Granted my boobs, reduced as they may be, are still large so I can’t actually see where or why I’m bleeding unless I have a mirror and I’m still too much of a chicken to look at that. Though I’m very surprised that the nipples are healing quite well, they don’t even look like anything happened. The downside to the nipples though is that they feel everything, particularly the left. I get shooting pains periodically through the day. It is validating however that the nurse said that either you feel nothing (which can be permanent) or they are overly sensitive and feel everything but that will tamp down in time.
All that said, I would do it again in a heartbeat. The recovery is seriously one of the worst things I’ve ever experienced in my life. But I can straighten my shoulders back consistently, which I haven’t been able to do since I was 16 years old. My knees don’t hurt because of the extra weight on the front end of my body. I feel lighter. I don’t have back pain. And clothes actually fit me. I need to lose some weight but I also feel much more prepared to do so without massive boobs that make me tired all the time. So overall, while I am in a pretty bad mood almost all the time because this recovery is no joke, I am eternally grateful that I had this surgery.
Also as much as I am complaining about this recovery I have to say, I am so so so grateful for my partner. I could not do this without her. And she puts up with a lot of crap from me right now. Because I am somewhat permanently in a bad mood and shouty which I think is somewhat understandable because of the pain. But also really really not fun to be around. And she’s been pretty great. She’s even done things that normally make her pass out like hold my hand while I got my sutures out. So I am grateful for many things. Smaller boobs and a wonderful person to help me through a tough time.
As a side note though, you’d think they’d have come up with some sort of technology to make this easier. Sigh. Maybe some day.