DIEP 2013

Sweetpickle, heavenschild and sherbab........I'm hiking tomorrow in "my" mountains. I will have you in my thoughts. Up there, I'll be closer to heaven, so your guardian angels will definitely get the message!

Have successful surgeries and gentle healing. The veterans are waiting to welcome you to the other side.

Good luck tomorrow sherbab, Sweetpickle, and Heavenschild! Keeping you in thought and prayer for smooth sailing!



Janet M - it is definitely normal to be excited one minute and in tears the next. It gets so real in the last week. You sound very prepared. Way more prepared than I was. My mom came to help for the first ten days and I have very generous and caring friends bringing a few meals a week for awhile. It really was not as hard as I thought it would be.



SheChirple - Did you have a perfectly girlie evening?



Lmo - my thought through chemo was that the enemy of my enemy is my friend. I hope it goes well for you with minimal SEs!



Kuka - glad you made it through the day with six kids! I am on the fence with school. I love having quiet time but also love getting off the treadmill that is the school year. I welcome sleeping in and not having to supervise/organize homework.

Heavenschild, sherbab, sweetpickle, all the best to you for tomorrow. Will think positive healing thoughts for you tomorrow as you are going through this.

Will be thinking of sweet pickle, sherbab and heavenschild tomorrow. You will do great!



Just a note on veggies- I like most of them but find as a single person they go bad before I eat them all if I buy fresh- and they aren't cheap. I started going to the store to get a handful of what I want for a specific meal.

I also know I don't eat enough of them so I found a great alternative. I make a protein, fruit smoothie for breakfast and found a liquid supplement called "greens". I add a tablespoon to my smoothie and it's supposed to be about 3 servings of veggies and you don't taste it.

Just a thought for you non veggie eaters.



Movie- you are bringing back all kinds of memories from when I lived in sapporo for a year!



Cheers,

Sherry

We have two recliners, and although I slept in our bed (with a gazillion pillows), when I wasn't doing something else, I was in the recliner.  The position was perfect to keep the stretch off the middle.  It was also very comfortable to put a flat-ish pillow on my lap, to rest my hands and arms.  With the TV remote, cell phone, and ice water close by, I was in heaven.

My hospital room actually did have a recliner, but the seat was too deep and I had to do too much painful scootching to get my fanny all the way back into the chair.  I liked my (much cheaper) recliner at home.

Gosh, maybe I'll stay home from work tomorrow and settle back in--there are some Netflix I could catch up on.

Sweetpickle, heavenschild and sherbab will be thinking of you tomorrow, and keeping you, and others, in my prayers.

I was convinced I needed a recliner/lift chair but ended up not getting one.  I was scared of stairs, so I slept downstairs on the couch the first few nights.  Didn't sleep well at all.  Last night I slept upstairs, in my own bed, and well, it was less than perfect.  Too late for a new chair now, but I kind of wish I had purchased one. I'm just not sleeping well.

I have to talk about potty training.  I have 4 kids.  #1, who is now 30+ yrs old, was 100% potty trained day/night, pee/poop, at 12-14 months.  #3 was at least 3 y/o before I even tried to potty train him.  His little sister, #4, was 20 months younger, and the two of them were 100% trained when he was 4 and she was 2.  Not only is every method different results, every child is totally different.  I do know that with every one was routine, routine, routine.  I remember every morning was wake up, take off diaper, sit on potty until pee was done.  Breakfast, dress, then back to potty until poop was done.  Same routine with lunch and dinner. Then once last session on the potty after bath time and before bed. Throughout the day it was every hour, ask and try, ask and try.  They all used big boy/big girl cotton training pants with those icky plastic covers.  No pull ups, no overnights. I felt like a total failure when #2-3-4 were not 100% by the time they were 14 months.  I learned really quick that you can't potty train until the child is ready.  Good luck!

well, sweetpickle, this is major.  I know with me, it was a combination of anxiety, fear of pain, fear of the length of surgery, fear that I was not truly prepared, not really knowing how it was going to turn out.

Just keep plugging forward.   Once in the hospital, prepped and ready to go, just take a deep breath and go foward.  We'll be thinking of you and waiting to hear how well you are doing in a few days.

Loved my recliner for all of my surgeries. Just make sure you are able to get it upright while somebody is with you! I got stuck fully reclined one day for quite a while until hubby came home for lunch (I think that was after hysterectomy). (You can laugh..it's funny now). I was able to sleep in bed (alone!) with a wedge pillow, pillow under knees and others tucked here and there. My 14 year old says there is a worldwide pillow shortage because of me! We redid the family room and made it my recovery room (I too was afraid of stairs) Built frames for two twin bed mattresses and made them into daybeds. So I can sleep in bed without DH jostling me but he was nearby the first few nights in the other twin bed. Now kids love to come in and flop out on the beds while I am in the recliner. They cannot wait for me to recover so they can take it over as their hangout for movies and gaming and having friends over!

Thank you ladies for your advice on the potty training. I'm going to hope that she gets it by the end of summer.

Also thank you for your honesty about my shin splits. I love honesty, so thank you. They still hurt this morning, but I'm hoping it won't keep me from doing my everyday life. Hopefully after the weekend I can power walk and slowly work my way to running again.

Back to having six kids today. One of them won't be back for the rest if the summer and the other two will be here for 6-8 weeks. What was I thinking?

Thinking about the ones having surgery today. I can't wait to hear how everything went.

I swear by Kinesio Tape (aka rock tape, KT tape, think 3M makes one too) for lots of stuff....including shin splints. Compression socks help me too. I sometimes feel like I am in a compression body suit what with the socks and the sleeve and the gauntlet and the bra and the belly binder.....pretty girl...pretty, pretty girl.

Shechirple I agree....except did forget to put belly binder on after shower one day and about an hour later I started hurting quite a bit. My problem (ok one of them) is I am very short waisted and binder bunches up under noob.



What's a flapper girl to do?

Dyvgrl - sleeping with TE is a very common problem.  I never could really sleep on my side with TE.  I got very used to sleeping on my back.  To the point my tailbone actually hurt!  I'd love to tell you it gets better, but not really.  I do think you kind of get used to it.

So, overnight, my drain fluid has gone from clear/cloudy red blood to a nice clear yellow.  They will definitely come out at next appt. Wed.

However, I do have one spot on my incision line that is draining without a tube, and I'm going through gause pads like crazy.  I suppose I could go in for a stitch, but.......I think it's fine, I just have to keep changng gauze pad 2 x / day.

So I went for a SLOW 1/2 mile walk in the neighborhood this afternoon.....my soul is fed a bit



Neighbors are having an open house for their son tonight. I think I am going to take all this compression off, put on my new Coobie bra and a smaller pair of pants and go to the party. Just gotta figure out the damned drains.....



LMAO! When I had my mx...after it healed...and I would have the occasional drain for the seroma and I used to put the drain in the empty bra cup and then pack cotton batting around it....can't pull that trick anymore!



Happy Friday! Saying prayers for our three DIEP friends that became Flapper Girls today!

Dyvgrl - TEs are just plain uncomfortable!  Sorry.  It does get a bit better but so much better when they are out!  I found that sleeping in my recliner the most comfortable.  You can also get a small squishy pillow to put under your TE and try to sleep on your side for support.  If you are still getting fills, make sure you are getting the muscle relaxers too.  They help a lot!

I took a break from BC today, and went with some friends for a facial, and lunch.  It was nice.  I ate to much, but my skin will look great! For a little while I didn't think about all my stuff, and we just talked about regular stuff, husbands, kids, shopping, clothes, our jobs, gossip, etc.  It was nice.  When I first got my diagnosis I would get upset if we didn't just talk about me because that was all I could think about, but now life does go on, and I think I am finally getting on with it too.  Now, when it's time for my diep I think I will revert back a bit, but for now it feels good.