Zero Drains Now!!!!!!!!

OK! The doc first looked at my left --- whatever that is that's over there. It's not a breast. It's not a side. It's something, but I have no idea what to call it. It had grown to the size of a chicken cutlet though, and while I prevailed upon her that it was skin, she quickly set me "right" that is was fluid accumulation. Remember me telling you what "aspiration" really was? Well she put that needle in and took out 80 cc's and then there was no more cutlet; I was just flat. After that fun adventure, she removed the last drain. OMG but I feel so much more FREE and less anxious about getting my damn drain caught on a door knob or stuck in a chair arm when I'm getting up and PULLING the stitch at my side! I've been anxious about being in a crowd because the one place I went (a funeral) this lady kept bumping into me while we were sitting down and she was bumping my bulb to my drain. Talk about feeling paranoid! I really, really didn't want to find out what it might feel like if that bulb got squished and all the gaaaak went backwards! Yuk!

I took a sport bra last night -- a really TIGHT one from when I used to go horseback riding, and I sewed the cups into flat area, and faced the interior with flat spandex so that I'd have a stretchy but tight binder. Evidentally it's important to keep the scars flat and the tissue flat (so fluid doesn't build up) and so the skin can begin to adhere to the chest wall again after being moved around. The doc and nurse were well satisfied with my adaption, and I like it a lot better than Ace bandages because it doesn't become ONE huge rubberband-like thing that gets squished up into a strangling bit of torture. It's not comfy, but it's not torture either. I'm told I should wear it all the way through April! We'll see how well that goes.

We stopped for a late lunch after leaving the doc's and then got caught up in the most hellish Atlanta traffic I've been in in quite some time! It took us 2-1/2 hours to get home because of that strange stuff that no one in Atlanta seems to be able to drive in: RAIN!!

The really good news for my daughter is that unless there is a problem that comes up, I don't have to see the surgeon until a YEAR from now! Yeah!!!! I'll be able to drive myself the next time!

I have a friend coming tomorrow to put up the new shower head! Yeah! My side is a bit sore right now, so I'm reserving judgement on if I'll try "gentle yoga" tomorrow or not. I'll see how I feel in the morning. Right now I have gotten rid of 2 metal clips that were in me, my port is now gone, and 4 foreign tubes have been removed. I feel like I am no longer one of the Borg: I do NOT have to assimilate!! In fact, I'm totally unassimilated because the only foreign body in me know is the clip they used to end where my gall bladder used to be. I'm free, I'm free, I'm free.

I'm also very, very tired from a very, very long day. I do hurt just a little, but I'm so, so happy that we don't have to make that long trip up to north Atlanta again anytime soon! God bless little Jewel. For a kid that doesn't have a passport, she has hundreds of miles under her two-month-old butt, and most of them are running her grammy back and forth to north Atlanta and back.

Now that the drain is out, I can call back MD Anderson. That is for sure one of my agenda items for tomorrow!

God bless Dr. S. She was sickies today and saw all her patients while wearing a face mask. I'm SO happy she was able to do so, because even if she was feeling like crap, she made me feel better!

So, what would you call the nothings I have now? They're not breasts? They're not anti-breasts. They're just scars? A left scar and a right scar? My left chest or my right chest? My left or right breast's former location? Mmmmmm, in my spare time, I'll give that some thought.

Good Lord but I'm happy (if exhausted) tonight!