Made it to the DIEP side :)

I can now say it, too :) I made it to the DIEP side.

Doing ok... It's been a pretty rough road. My surgery was 17 hours on July 21. I woke up in PACU around 1am and remember hearing the conversations among the team about getting me out of PACU to ICU as soon as possible (probably because they were tired!). My doctor is so awesome that she contracted with a device to monitor my flaps ongoing. She could monitor my flaps from her phone with this device. The only problem is, my flaps are small (because she did a great job) so the machine couldn't get a good reading. So it alarmed ALL NIGHT LONG for three nights.

My care team in ICU was amazing. I was treated like a queen. And Dr. Cochran rounded, came to see me every day at least once. She's a perfectionist, which I SO appreciate! I was discharged Sunday, on Post-op day 5. Since being home (today is Thursday), I've had THE best nurse, Vaida :) She really hasn't left my side, waits on me hand and foot, and genuinely cares about my healing SO much. I'd be lost without her and I get teary just thinking about it. So enough of all that..

Did I mention this is a life-changing surgery? I sleep reclined and will probably for the next several months. Once I don't have to be reclined anymore, I have to sleep on my back for a bit longer yet. I will also do away with carbs and anything with carbonation and move to a plant-based diet. AH!

Otherwise, I'm doing ok. Each day gets a little bit better. I thought I'd try and get off my pain meds so I tried that yesterday and regretted it by bedtime. I'm just not ready yet. In the meantime, I'm trying to figure out how to nap during the day, stay asleep at night, and somehow get up without my belly and chest screaming at me :) As long as I'm sitting down (besides the sore butt - I didn't get that memo previously), I feel OK. I've definitely learned what it means to "netflix n chill" LOL.