** Please bear with any misspellings; crashed the home PC and don't yet have my spell checker installed**
From time to time on my surgial path and most certainly post surgery I will be making blog entries about the whole experience. This is the first "official" entry in regards to such.
I now know which surgery I will be having, it will be a breast reduction and a panniculectomy. A panniculectomy is like a tummy tuck except they don't tighten the actual muscles but rather the fascia that lies over the muscles... essentually it creates the same effect and I expect to be in a great amount of pain. My surgery is 6 weeks from today, while it seems that 6 weeks is quite the ways off , in reality it's about the same length of time as a blink when there is so much to get done beforehand.
Thank you to everyone at the Isle of Whack and at The Chick Clique for your support and suggestions in regards to what I should be doing now as well as after I have this procedure done. My panniculectomy is going to be a small inverted T ( that is an extra incision from the navel to the pubic mound) which is going to make the post surgical pain a little more than what they consider the norm, but I don't fear it, in fact I think this is the first time in my life I'm actually looking forward to it.
My poor mother nearly had a heart attack when she figured out ( via me telling her) how long I could potentially be on the operating room table. She asked "Are you sure you want to be there that long?" My response was a heavy dose of laughter, "Like I'm gonna care Mom...I'll be sleeping!" I think that people fail to realize that for me it's going to be what seems like minutes... One minute I'm falling to sleep the next minute I'm waking up..TADA... it's those waiting to see if all has gone well and according to plan that are going to be antsy.
My areola will be reduced, but left attached to the blood supply and therefore should retain their sensitivity, the plan is for me to have only the outer anchor scar, but this may change on the day of surgery or mid surgery if the plastic surgeon isn't getting the result he desires for me. He was happy at the appearance of my breasts, apparently very youthful and with good tone, the word he used was voluminous, especially on the interior and so he would like to use a method that he pioneered.
I'm very confident that I will be getting the best possible care, he is a skilled and experienced hand with some 30 years experience in both plastic and reconstructive surgery and owns his own private hospital in conjunction with doing "provincially funded" surgeries at the provincially owned hospital that I will be going to.
For the panniculectomy, these are the basics:
I will be marked with a sharpie the morning of surgery;
He will be preforming lipo-suction around my ribcage to loosen up the skin that is there, this is done to aid him in pulling the skin down into it's new position. Next an incision will be made from the rear of my right hip to the rear of my left hip, an incision will be made around my navel to free it from the skin, and then another incision made from the bottom of the navel area to the top of the pubic mound in an inverted T , thusly creating a "flap." He will then remove the excess skin and redundant fat in two triangular sections, they will be weighed and then discarded.
He will then tighten the fascia that lays over the muscles by stitching it together creating sort of an internal corset. Next he will pull down the loosened skin and basically tack it into place, he will then poke a hole for the navel and stitch it back into position before proceeding with the stitching closed of the hip to hip incision placing a drain tube at each hip.
I will then be put in a compression garment that will be my new best friend for some months to follow.
For the breasts, these are the basics:
He will have marked me with a sharpie the morning of surgery;
He will make and incision in my breasts that will mark the new position of the aerola and nipple, he will make a triangular incision ( or keyhole incision) to the breast crease at this time he will be reducing the size of my areola, he will also be making an anchor incision, but only on the outer sides of the breasts. He will remove the excess tissue and manipulate the remaining tissue both upward and inward until the reduced breast sits in it's new position, he will place a drain on the outside of each breast and stitch me up. I will be placed in a compression garment ( usually a surgical bra and tightly wrapped with bandages) and VOILA... new boobs!
It all sounds incredibly easy, but I assure you it's not and I can expect to be in the operating room for upto 8 hours give or take depending on how well my skin and fat respond to the manipulation.
I will be in the hospital overnight, but may be there for upto two days depending on how I cope afterwards.
The hardest part is in the healing, making sure that I follow his instructions to the letter is going to be key. I will most likely be away from Delphi for at least a few days, but my trusty laptop is coming with me to my recouperation spot so depending on how I'm feeling I might well make short visits to check in.
A friend of mine who had the exact same surgery by the exact same doctor last year chose not to listen to him in regards to the compression garment and she is paying the price for it now. I don't care if he tells me I have to wear the thing for a year, I will do it. I have worked too damned hard and have wanted this too long to have anything screw it up!