Family Nurse Practitioner Lisa Cook turned out to be a charming 40-ish woman, very on-the-ball. She examined me and said while the surgery looked "major," they did a great job, my incisions are healing beautifully and there's no infection or other bad signs. Despite their practice's strict "no oxycodone scripts" policy, she said it was obvious that I had a clear & present need for more pain meds. As long as Bill is willing to drive me everywhere, I'll just stay on those meds that make it possible for me to function at all!
The swelling in my arm had eased by the time I saw her, but we talked about strategies to avoid further insult to those tissues in the future. As soon as these surgical drains come out (Flippy & Floppy, naming them for MaryAnn's benefit, or perhaps Left-Liberal Luther and Right-Reactionary Rachel), I'll be able to exercise my arms again, which will help pump those excess fluids away from that area. And thank heavens I didn't have to have all those lymph nodes removed, again a blessing to have the sentinel node biopsy instead of the old sampling technique that could have led to more damage.
Life continues to improve--one trip to the doctor's office and Walmart for the Rx filling, and I spent the rest of the day sleeping or half-sleeping.
Pizza tonight, something easy and quick!
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
2 comments:
I am a big fan of Nurse Practitioners - I married one. Swelling - ick. I ended up doing some physical therapy later on in my recovery - after radiation. My scar tissue from the breast reduction coupled with the effects of radiation caused some problems in addtition to the edema. There are some good PT techniques out there when you are ready.
Ha ha ha ha ha - I vote for "Flippy & Floppy"........Keep those arms elevated!!! Glad to hear that the swelling is finally going down.
Hope to see you soon in town.
MHB
Post a Comment