So this last Thursday was my pre-op appointment. It was my last chance to change anything- the size, the shape...my mind. It is all set in stone. We sent in the order to St.Lukes for 450cc implants. They supply the implant so they have to order them. It gets paid in three separate ways: the surgeon gets his $2500 fee for performing the surgery, St.Lukes gets about $2700 for the surgical fee and implants, and then the anesthesia group gets $710. Louis just paid with his debit card for the surgeon on Thursday and then you just call the billing office of the other two places and they'll take his debit card number over the phone.
I received my prescriptions: percocet for pain, an antibiotic, and zofran for nausea. I also received my post op instructions and post op bra....stylin' let me tell ya. It looks like an old lady bra with about 6 hooks going down the front. Not exactly what I had envisioned. :)
Basically the day of the surgery after I wake up I will be wrapped extremely tightly in an ace bandage. That bandage doesn't get removed at all until the next day at my post op appointment...basically I don't even get to see them until 24 hours after they are done. At my post op, they will undo the bandages, check them out, and then wrap me back up. The third day I can finally take the bandage off for about 1-2 hours and take a bath or shower, but then have to wrap back up, and then on the fourth I have to leave the bandages off for 24 hours, THEN, I put the post-op bra on. Whew!! Crazy!!
They say only about 3-4 days recovery time. Hopefully that holds true. I guess when you wake up you breathe really shallow because your chest muscles are so tight. Val, the surgeon's nurse, said not to panic its just the way it goes for about the first day. Im afraid Im going to come out from under the anesthesia and go flip mode because I feel like I can breathe. You also can't really lay flat for a while, it feels better to lay in a reclined position. Long story short before surgery Im going to have to get the house ready to come home to- everything down at hand level, no lifting over my head or up for a bit, no lifting anything heavier than a gallon of milk, laying reclined, not flat.
Tomorrow is the two week mark. I know its going to fly by, but it is still surreal in a way. It started to hit home once he paid for them and I got prescriptions and stuff, buy it still seems like a dream!!
