DIEP Recovery Update - week 2

Still recovering from major surgery (DIEP breast reconstruction). Today when I woke up I felt I had turned a major corner of recovery. I was able to go outside and sit in the sun for a bit. (I was not able to go to church, however.)

Here are the key things I remember from my diary of recovery over the last few days:

Thursday - bundled into the car and went down to meet with the surgeon. I am doing great. One drain is out (the one under my arm). Had to use a wheelchair to get from the car to ...

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My hospital stay - Day 2

I am looking over my "hospital diary" text document where I jotted down my observations while recovering from a DIEP breast reconstruction last week. For other women going through this, here are my messy thoughts and observations, cut and pasted, with a little editing.

day 2
Off the dilaudid pain pump, which i was not using often enough, and onto oral pain meds. pain under control finally, taking 10 mg oxycodone every three hours

catheter out . [Added later: You wake up from surgery catheterized with a "Foley catheter."] Didn't hurt at all, thank goodness. removing  it meant I had ...

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8-day post surgical health update

Well, they sure weren't joking when they said this DIEP flap breast reconstruction was going to be major surgery. *cough cough* If anything, I'd say that was an understatement.

(Ouch. Oh that's right, I still can't cough or laugh - not much - yet.)

I need to thank you all for your prayers on Tuesday night. After two days of being really, really miserable, like sick with the world's worst flu, achy and weak, unable to stand, and wondering if I was going to survive this ordeal, I reached out for prayer on Tuesday in this blog ...

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6th day post-op, Struggling a bit

After having a DIEP flap breast reconstruction last week (post mastectomy after a successful fight against breast cancer), I came home on Sunday feeling great.

But not so fast, This is now my second day of feeling weak and awful, like I am down with the flu. I have no fever and all my vital signs are good, but one of my surgical drains is clogged and fluid is backing up. (For more on JP drains, which I also had after my mastectomy, see also: https://www.drugs.com/cg/jackson-pratt-drain-care.html. I had no trouble with them at all ...

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Could SOY be contributing to society's new gender troubles?

Have you noticed all the recent news stories about gender confusion? An alarming  number of people claim to feel either incorrectly gendered, or altogether genderless. From "Chaz" Bono, to Warren Beatty's daughter-turned-son, to the Japanese guy who did not feel affiliated with either gender so he amputated his, um, unwanted parts (and then fed them to paying guests), this bizarre trend seems to be accelerating.

Could changing hormone profiles be the culprit?

The phytoestrogens found in soy foods are a controversial area of research. In a number of studies, they have been shown to adversely affect reproductive health, sexual ...

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