[chrisy]

Hi Kevin and Sue,
I had that surgery 4 1/2 years ago. It was the first surgery I'd ever had, so I really had no idea what to expect!

If Sue has not had any surgery before, one thing you will want to know is to expect nausea and grogginess upon "waking up". I felt crummy and when they asked me if I wanted my husband to come in I said no. I didn't realize that they would never ask me again! So the next surgery, I made a point to tell them that when I say "no" I mean "yes" to that question! And the sooner you can even consider keeping food down, have some because it will make you feel much better.

I did not have much pain from the surgery, although there was considerable pressure - it felt sort of like a pontiac sitting on my chest! But not really much pain at all. I don't think I even used the "Patient controlled analgesia" which was funny - they kept coming in and tapping the machine because they thought it was broken.

I also went home with a drain (or maybe 2) that stayed in for over a week. That was a little gross, but not painful. One thing I found very helpful was to get a cloth or elastic belt and safety pin the drains to this, so that I wouldn't accidentally yank them out (because THAT hurt!)

For some reason I had to sleep almost sitting up for about a week. I felt pretty good and was able to be up and around, but it does take a while to get back to full strength.

When I had the implant placed and reduction for symmetry, that surgery was very easy, I bounced back very quickly and was back to whatever constitutes normal within a couple of days.

Good luck to you, and I'll be hoping you get "good" news and nice clean margins with the surgery.

Hang in there
Chris