Tuesday, October 27, 2015

Finally, heading home to Anchorage!

I had a great weekend visiting family and friends.  James, my designated drive for the past two weeks because I can't move my arms, was able to drive us up to Bellingham on Saturday to visit James' parents and his brother's family.  While there, Colleen was able to pull the right thigh drain that was ready - loved that!  I love visiting Jon, Colleen, Anna Corinne and Emily.  We have lots of fun together and they've got a little farm which I enjoy.  Loved meeting the llamas!

Isn't she cute?!

Sunday we were able to drive down to Tacoma and visit some long time friends from Fairbanks.  It was great to see Diana and Mary.  They made us a delicious lunch which we needed to get us through the I5 traffic as we headed north in the afternoon.  We stopped in Issaquah to visit Jennifer and Jon, James' sister and brother-in-law.  While there I went to the restroom at the restaurant and returned uneventfully.  Jennifer then went to the restroom and returned asking if I'd seen the picture of David Lee Roth.  Nope, I missed it.  I returned to check it out with this selfie as evidence.  What a laugh we all had!

No caption needed...

Yesterday, I had an appointment at UW with the Physician's Assistant.  Ann checked for infection, checked stitches and checked breasts.  Everything looked great.  She was able to remove the doppler wires from each breast.  She explained that they have a dissolving rubber bulb on the end where it is connected to the vein or artery.  The longer they are left in, the more the bulb dissolves, the easier it is to pull out.  She removed the tape covering the exposed ends and gave a tug to the wires on the right breast.  Came out like a breeze!  She removed the tape covering the exposed ends and gave a tug to the wires on the left breast.  Not so easy peasy, which made me a little queazy as blood came running out.  She patched up the hole and I was ready to go.  Unfortunately, I still had one drain in my left thigh still draining over the 30cc allowed per day.  On the bright side, because everything looked great, I didn't need to follow up with Dr. Said today.

This morning James was able to pull the final drain.  The PA suggested pulling it before flying and then wearing compression stockings for the flight home.  In addition to the compression stockings, I've continued to need to wear my compression sleeve because of the Lymphedema in my arm.  I'll follow up with medical providers in Anchorage.

After 4-6 weeks I can resume activity, taking it easy athletically.  In December I have a follow up appointment with Dr. Said where he'll outline the second part of the reconstruction.  This ends part one of four for this next part of my journey.  More to come at that time...