What an eventful week it has been, I think I need a good holiday to get over it all now, wow. So I had my surgery seven days ago and what am I doing right now? Sitting on a train for a nine-hour roundtrip back to the hospital to have my dressings changed! As you do of course. I came out of hospital last week the following morning after my surgery that had finished just before 9pm on Monday night. I was too shaky and weak to get showered or even walk to my en suite so had a blanket bath in bed quickly before the taxi arrived to take Luca and I to the station home. And what concoction of super strength pain relief was I given for the four and a half hour bumpy train ride home? Paracetamol. Two to be exact. And I seem to recall being given a paracetamol almost a year ago to the day now when in labour with Gabriele as well. Considering I also had my period, stomach cramps, back ache and a freshly sewn-on chest, it’s safe to say that paracetamol did very little for the pain. Perhaps people look at me and think, ‘she looks tough, she can handle it’ and don’t feel the need to medicate me adequately as I seem to remember at the age of eighteen when I had my first breast augmentation, I left hospital higher than a hot air balloon and went bra shopping in London before returning home. Hmm…
So I’m gradually getting more mobile by the day but can’t drive for another week nor lift anything for another three weeks. I’m off of my antibiotics which finished today and I’m hoping once I reach the hospital for my appointment that I can collect a jar filled with my old PIP implants, now that sounds pleasant! Typically hospitals have to incinerate anything that they remove from patients in theatre but because of the PIP scandal they are allowing implants to be adequately sterilised and released. I have good mind to bring them home and place them on the mantle shelf as inspiration for good triumphing over evil! Or is that a bit weird?
I still have to wear my DVT support stockings and I’m gradually getting brave enough to lift my shoulders back and support the whole weight of my chest as opposed to hunching forward and letting my bra take the brunt of it. My new implants are 470cc and weigh a whole 2lbs! I haven’t had my cupsize measured yet as I’m still wearing my Hospital Bra, but in a few weeks time once my stitches have healed I can go underwear shopping and find out. My old DD implants were 350cc so my surgeon estimates I am now roughly an F or a G. Me being me and very excited to be told, I googled 470cc implants as a cupsize and came across this:
“There is no correlation between the size of implant and resulting cup size. This may have to do with several factors including: the amount of breast volume the patient starts with, the shape of the patient’s chest wall (concave or convex), the type and model of breast implant selected (saline/silicone and low/moderate/high profile), bra manufacturer variance in cup sizes, the degree of filling of the cup with breast tissue, and the subjective differences in patients’ perceptions of cup size.”
Tom J. Pousti, MD, FACS San Diego Plastic Surgeon. So I guess I’ll just have to wait then!
My semi-permanent tattoo’d eyeliner is healing very nicely now, the scabs are off and I have just two weeks until my second and final treatment. I’m a little bit tempted to have the edges of my liner flicked outwards as opposed to rounded or squared off, but I still have some time to decide and no doubt will change my mind ten times over again before then.
The children have been stayed over both sets of their grandparents whilst I’ve been healing, and they pop home during the day to come and see me whilst I’m laid up and bandaged, before driving back to mine or Luca’s parents for a sleepover as I can’t lift or hold either of the children and have no way to tend to them. It’s heartbreaking not being able to hug my babies, but I’m one week down already and only have three more to go. Millie has been stroking my hair and kissing my forehead and Gabriele rubbed his nose on my nose earlier and it’s fuelled me enough to stay strong and keep going. Every second that passes is a second closer to me being back to normal and in good health to look after the children. If I’d have left my PIP implants in any longer then who knows what could have happened to me, so a little suffering now has prevented a far greater problem from happening in the future.
My little angel Millie persuaded my parents to take her to the shop after school in the week and stopped off for some pretty ‘get well soon’ gifts for me and it was such a lovely surprise. She also wrote me a lovely note and put her bunny teddy on my pillow which I found later on when I hobbled up to bed. What a sweet little chicklet she is, my very own little Florence Nightingale. 🙂
So it is Gabriele’s first birthday tomorrow, but we celebrated his birthday at a nice little BBQ yesterday with friends and family as it was the weekend and far easier to get everybody together. We decorated the house with all of his pirate decorations and turned it into a tavern of surprises ma harty! Arr!
Gabriele’s Godmother made a beautiful pirate ship birthday cake which really stole the show. After a sleepy little Gabriele was woken up to blow out his candles Luca cut the cake and his knife skills left a lot to be desired; after his skilful ‘chopping’ we actually couldn’t tell if he’d used a knife or a fork to portion it off! 🙂
Millie was adorable showing Gabriele what to do throughout his party, because obviously she is a professional now as she’s had five of her own. It was lovely to watch her clapping her hands and cuddling her baby brother and being so excited together, she helped him to unwrap his presents and tickled his face when he fell asleep.
Gabriele squealed his little heart out as he pulled curls of wrapping paper off of the boxes and tinkled with his toys. It was so lovely to see him, one year on from when we welcomed him into the world, and now here he is, this adorable little person playing with his big sister.
But it was all a little too much for our little Captain Gabriele as he fell fast asleep before the end of his party, obviously it’s tough work being a one year old! x x x x