This morning we got up bright and early and headed over to the University to get the staples and sutures out of my nipples (or, as Dr. Buckley likes to call them, "nippies") and the drains pulled.
We had already unwrapped the original dressing this weekend and taken a quick look. Everything looked great, except for a little puffiness on the left-hand side, but no big deal. After a great re-wrap by nurse Brandi, I was ready to go for a few more days before it was time to head back to the doctor.
I had two students helping out the nurse who took out the drains and the sutures. Each student took care of one drain and they pulled them both out at the same time. It wasn't in the least bit painful, but it was a bizarre feeling as I could feel the tubing coming out all the way from the middle of my chest to the holes in my sides. Bizarre, but painless. I was way more afraid of it than I needed to be. Mostly because the drain sites were irritating me all week, so I thought getting them out would be irritating, too. Not so!
The nurse tackled the nipples next. The dressings were sutured and stapled on to my nipples to better protect them since they're a skin graft. The dressings needed to be removed very carefully to ensure that the nipples didn't come off. She did a great job, despite the plethora of staples Buckley had put in there, and the very tight sutures. The nipples look pretty good. The right one is nearly perfect and the left one "shifted" a bit, but should be fine when healed. Fine enough, anyway.
I definitely now have a flat, male-contoured chest that makes me feel very excited when I look in the mirror. I now look in the mirror the way I've always pictured myself looking. I probably could have cried the first time I saw it if I were the crying type.
My chest still feels a little odd because it is healing, but I definitely still have feeling throughout my chest, although not on the nipples, which makes sense, as they're a graft.
I'm now to place a dressing over each nipple for a week, which is held down by a waterproof Tegaderm patch. I can shower, but I can't let the nipples get hit by the water for another week or so. I'll probably protect those bad boys a long time, because I certainly don't want them dropping off!
I'm really pleased with the results and I'm really pleased with the care Buckley took with me. Yes, the scars are long, but she pretty much was able to avoid dog ears, which I was worried about a lot. I was a 36 DDD before surgery, plus I'm overweight, so the combination meant that I was likely to have dog ears; but she did a damn good job. She's a great person and a great doctor and a great surgeon. I'm lucky to have worked with her and her team and super fortunate/lucky/privileged to have insurance to pay for all of this. It never would have happened if not for that.
It also never would have happened without Brandi, so I thank her for that as well.
Other highlights from the week of recovery include flowers and fruit and adorable cards from family and friends, and coloring books and colored pencils from my Mom, who is fantastic in her own right.
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