Oh what a feeling...

I got the OK to shower yesterday and let me tell you, a shower after a week does a body good. I'd also like to thank my friends at Becon Skiff Orchard for their awesome apple cidar which finally got my bowels moving for the first time in a week! I am like a new woman! I think my irritability is getting better, but Andy would be the better judge of that, I've been quite unbearable lately, but he started talking to me again yesterday, so I took that as a good sign.

So, my follow up yesterday was short and sweet. He removed the chest strap noted below. Wasn't really sure what this was about, but it was tight and confining & I am glad for it to be gone. He said it was to help move the girls up and center! All the bandages under & on the boobies covering the sutures are still in place. He wants those to stay another week. There is still tenderness there and most of my discomfort at this point seems to be rib pain. I don't know if he bruised them when he was moving the girls in or if it is just sympathy pain for Andy's previous rib pain, but it is quite sore. OK, I should have been more sympathetic to Andy's pain, I get it, I am sorry, it really hurts! and I know, I don't even have 4 broken ones, I just have a few bruised ones. Maybe it's the 500 cc's of saling pressing on them, just thought of that.

MD orders: finish out the antibiotic, & pain meds (easy). No exercise, no lifting, pushing, or carring anything heavy, rest(not so easy) I don't like moving slow or appearing to take it easy! that's for whimps, but for the sake of perky breast, I will try and obey!

So now I am sitting here thinking what to do with myself that fits into all those restrictions and I think I might be scrapbooking soon. I am a year behind and if I could just get started again, I think I could get caught up. I did finally finish the Twilight series and have now started on Wally Lamb's new book. What is up with these 700 page books? My Ipod had a hardware failure so I am also working on transferring what I really need from that to my iphone and seeing if I can survive with just one "i" appendage.

Time to rest, gravity is pushing down onto the ribs and they are yelling supine sherie, supine!

new meal schedule!

(click to enlarge)

email Helen for information or to get on the meal schedule.

THANK YOU!!

The Big Reveal

Everyone keeps asking when the "big"reveal is. Well I haven't even seen them as they are still bound tightly under all the bandages, but I suspect they will look just look this! Yup, that is what boobs with no nipples look like, a barbie doll! Pretty appropriate that my college nickname was Skip, after Barbie's exercising cousin, Skipper! Some foreshadowing on my friends part back then?? I may have Skip's perky boobs, but I certainly don't have her spunk right now. I continue to be sore and move slowly. The bandages are wrapped so tightly that I sometimes gasp for a breath. If I sit up too long, the gravity hurts, so I have been finding comfortable supine positions with lots of pillow and blanket supports.

I have a follow up apt. on Tuesday with Dr. Gil. So I will try and be a good patient until then. Nurses typically are not good patients, but I am trying.

Sherie

I'm out!

So as not to be out done by Andy's blue cap surgery piture, here is mine. I got thirsty and though I would have a saline martini too!


So, surgery went well. I was in for four hours and ended up with 500cc's in each side, can' t see a thing yet as I am all bandaged up, but the Doc said they are just about the same size as I was before all this, just perkier and no cancer in them! He improved my inframammory fold, so he had to cut and sew under neath and that is my only discomfort now. I am going back to rest now and take more of the pain meds, but wanted to let you all know it went fine.




Here is a picture ofmy lip too, apparently I was talking too much and the surgeon punched me..... just kidding, not sure what happened, but I thought it was funny! Andy wants to call this one
Lip Sevice.


Thanks again for all the well wishes. As I expected, this one seems the worst of anything I have had thus far!
Sherie

My turn

Andy thinks I should go Green with my imPlants!
He's a funny one that hubby of mine. Whenever we are shopping now and he sees 2 big round things he wants me to hold them up and take a picture and then he comes up with some clever saying to ut on the blog. He technically doesn't know a thing about bloggin, but he likes the creative picture and saying part of it, so Thanks Andy for another clever one!

So we had a long weekend away in Rochester for mid winter break, So what if our other friends are going to Disney, to Vermont skiing, or travelling down the Nile. What do they have that Rochester doesn't? We swam at the hotel pool, we slept in everyday, we ate room service and watched movies, went to museums and shopped and we didn't have to worry about any plane excitement, we just drove 60 minutes in our car and we were home! It was nice and now we are back!

I am in a frenzy getting everything ready before my surgery this week. If you have a choice on when your surgery is, don't do it durning a break from school. Having the kids home just adds to the mayham! I am trying to do this and they are mommy this and mommy that and I am bored and I want a friend over and lets go do this and blahblahblah! So, now that they are in bed, I can do all the things I was suppose to do today instead of swimming, skating, helping with projects, etc... I know they are only young once, enjoy them now, the other stuff can wait. I am a psychiatric nurse, I spew that stuff to my crazed patients all teh time, doesn't mean I have to listen to it. Maria is coming tomorrow for my pre surgery massage, I will be fine after that and my next gin and tonic tonight!

So, anyways, I go in Thursday morning @ 7am. I will get "marked up" and be in surgery about 8am. It should take about 3 hours. perfect bouncy silicone boobs take time! . 2 hours for recovery and I should make it home for dinner. My mom will be with the kids, Andy will be @ the hospital, most of the time, I think he is ducking out for a meeting once they kick him out of the surgery room. So, I should be able to send a blog that evening on how it all went. They say it should be easier than last time, but I don't want to expect that, cause I'll be disappointed if it is not. I plan on trying to rest through the weekend and should be good to go by my follow up on Tuesday. I have 2 party invites Saturday and Sunday and I said maybe, we'll see how I feel. I could have done it last time!
Well, wish I had some more humor in me, but this wonder girl is tired out and going to bed.

Since Shelly is floating down the Nile River, Helen wanted me to let you know she has another calander started for meals. I think I'll be fine and don't think it is necessary, but apparently y'all don't care what I think and want to cook for me, so thank you again for being so kind and generous with that and give Helen a call or shoot her an email if you are feeling the need.
Thanks for all teh love and support, I promise to be done with all this drama soon!
Sherie

Mystery Solved!

So I was going to title this one, "it's a mystery", hence the picture, but Doctor Michael, AKA, the smartest man from Weedsport & our snow shoveling neighbor, solved the mystery in the wee hours of the morning today. So you are like, What the hell is she talking about, well here is the newest Andy saga....

It all started, we think, a week ago. Andy was complainging of groin pain. Certainly wasn't from exercise or S-E-X, but groin pain none the less. Then came the red, pimple like bumps all over his body. OK, he's got sensitive skin and gets pimples once in awhile, so we didn't think anything of it. Then last Friday, at Casino Night, a fundraiser we were at, I look over from the dance floor I was lighting on fire with my moves, and see Andy sitting down on a couch bending forward in what looked like pain to me. I, in the middle of a great dance move, lept across the dance floor running to the aid of my husband. He had his socks and shoes off and said he could barely walk. He had reddness and swelling all around his ankles. So, being the kind and caring nurse wife that I am I forwent the next hour of dancing and took him home.

Now for those of you who live in town, this ailment came 2 days after the MRSA note we got home from school stating that there was a case in the school system and they start out like pimples. Dr. Michael took a look the next morning and ruled out MRSA, phew, he's not going to die of that, but what Dr. Mike, what is it?????? best guess at that point was a strep infection and best way to rule that in or out is to treat with antibiotics. Due to pain being caused by this, Andy had to miss standing in the cold with his cubscout den at Winter Fest & the task fell to me, thanks Honey for planning these illnesses so nicely! So, antiobiotics started, feeling a bit better during the days, but still pretty bad at night. Back to Dr. Mike, we even went to the office this time. Bloodwork and xrays taken. Consultation with other Docs and nurses at the office and then this morning at the bustop I get the official diagnosis, Erythema Nodosum. Now I know erythema means redness and swelling and nodosum looks like "i don't know" so in lay person terms it is redness and swelling we don't know about! and after reading more that's about it. They aren't sure what really brings it on, can be food allergy, strep infection, other preceding illnesses, but it is an infection in the subcutaneous fat anywhere you have it in the body. No real treatment, other than pain meds and steroids to help calm symptoms, resolves on own, sometime taking up to 3mos. can reoccur down the road. Usually occurs in people ages 30-40, ok Andy is 42, but his Wii age is 38. Usually occurs more in woman then men, we all know Andy is a metrosexual with lots of female qualities. All the accounts I read on line are dead on to what Andy is experiencing, So Good job, Doctor Mike, but yes, it is poor Andy again. and isn't if funny that once again, it is 2 weeks before my surgery, just like the last accident. I get the feeling he is feeling left out from the sympathy I start to receive about now and feels he has to go do something to get some of the love going his way. Well OK, maybe not consciously, but come on, this is to weird.

So, I am in narsissistic withdrawl and need to talk about myself now. I had my 2 week preop appointment yesterday with Dr. Gil and did my preadmission screening(PAS) @ the hospital. I am getting good at that routine after the third time. Nothing new with the PAS. Dr. Gil and I signed all the papers and went through the procedure and consents. believe it or not, there are alot of options for silicone implants. Dr. Gil's biggest concern is getting them back to the size I want while creating nice clevage and "projection"(the number of inches the girls protrude from my body) I keep telling him I want the smaller amount of cc's in them, but his point is, that from his experience, when you change out the hard expanders for the soft silicone, it looks alot different. The expanders look hard, and they are, and because of that they creating a big, full appearance. the silicone is more natural, like normal breast tissue and as you can see from the picture above, is squishy. So while 450 cc's in the expanders looks huge to me right now, 450 cc's in implants will not. So, he is going to order 3 different sizes for me (ranging from 390cc's - 440cc's) and he is going to see what looks best at the time of surgery. Yup, I am leaving my boob size in the hands of another man, but I trust him and know he will do right by me, and more importantly Andy. So the surgery is Thursday 2.19. I go in @ 7am and will be home that evening. My mom will be here with the kids as they are off school for winter break. Recovery is the same as before, if not easier, but he wants me to be more mindful of no lifting or exercise for atleast 4 weeks to let the sutures heal.

Kids are home and need me, so that's it for now. By the looks of the length of this, that is probably a good thing.

Sherie