I’ve been posting pics of the healing process on instagram and pixelfed. The process has been up and down, but mostly up. Surgery went great, I seem to be healing well. One nipple graft is perfect the other is still in its early healing stage. I’m really really really tired of wearing a binder basically 24/7 and my skin being obnoxiously sensitive but whenever I go into the bathroom and take my binder off for a minute and see myself in the mirror I feel so right.
For the first time I see my whole self. My body looks like I feel my 30yr old body should look and I just feel correct. Like, obviously this is what my body should have been this whole time. I didn’t realize how much dysphoria I had about my chest until my boobs were gone.
Recovery
I got oxycodone for pain and learned I don’t like it very much. I had a really long adrenaline high for like 5 days post op and then the pain became manageable with the combination of extra strength tylenol, my regular dose of gabapentin, and edibles. I crashed really hard. The oxy would peter out after about 3 hours and then I was just in pain waiting until I could take it again, while in an IBS and fibro flare (I had to stop taking the Low Dose Naltrexone for the narcotic and LDN has made my life so much better) that weren’t being touched. Once I was able to get back on my usual pain regimen with the addition of 500mg of tylenol every 6hrs and Eve’s salve things became much much better and now the pain is annoying but not intense.
I have to wear my binder until Dec 1 because that will keep the scars from getting puffy. I can’t pick up Farid until mid December, but I can gently stretch my arms and raise them above my head and I have been able to gingerly sleep on my sides with the help of my giant stuffed dogs for support.
Coconut oil and the salve have been helping my skin calm down. The weirdest thing has been that the sensation of pain is an inch or two below where the incisions are, and the incisions themselves are pretty numb. I do get ghost sensations when my nipples ache and I feel them further out than they are and I go to touch my chest and realize it’s flat. It’s a weirdly annoying nice feeling. It also gives me a bit of hope that I will retain some nipple sensation since I definitely do not feel numb and the nipple sensation aligns with the grafts and where my brain thinks my nipples are.
I’m slowly getting myself back into doing things that don’t involve lifting, I’m happy to have the bandwidth to work again. Although, I’m still very fatigued and find myself needing to rest frequently. In my downtime I’ve been playing a lot of Animal Crossing with the new expansion, finished Jenny LeClue, and have been enjoying The Inner World on my switch.
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