The first few days.....

I'm not gonna lie.... the first few days after surgery were painful.  And difficult.  And exhausting for my husband!  I slept all the time.  I would only wake up to eat, drink, pee and take my medicines.

Here is where my husband became a total ROCKSTAR in my book!  I am putting a picture of him up right here that I love.  Not taken during this week of recovery but when he looks great and calm and cool!

Now anyone that knows my husband knows that Tim he doesn't do "gross".  He will tell you in the history of his life he has never changed anyone else's diapers but the babies that belong to him.  When one of the kids puke, if he is forced to clean it up he will throw sheets away, clothes away and toys away before he will clean it.  If one of the kids dropped something into the toilet he may fish it out, but the toilet item goes straight into the trash!  And don't even get me started on how he reacted to the things that came out of my body during the births of our 4 kids.

So I have to say that when the nurses showed Tim how to strip and empty my drains in the hospital I was skeptical that he would be able to handle it.  I seriously considered who I could call to come over a few times a day the first week to help me with it.  Much to my surprise and happiness Tim never faltered.  Now Sara did note the first time Tim did it in the hospital he was white as a sheet.  But once at home he did great. Now there was some complaining involved and some gross noises made but he did it.  A few times a day.  Without Fail.

So the process is that you release the valve plug on the drain.  You put your fingers around the drain tube right next to my body and strip the fluid that is in the tube down so that it all collects into the drain bottle.  Then you empty the contents of said bottle into a measuring cup.  You then note how much fluid was collected out of the right and then the left drains separately.  You dispose of fluid collected, and then squeeze the air out of the drain collection bottle and replace the valve plug.  

Here is the drain records that Tim kept for me the first 2 weeks.

Tim also kept track of all my medicine on a log.  I'm sad that I can't find and show you the one he kept because I must have thrown it away.  But it was something similiar to this log I created for myself after Tim went back to work.

Tim took 6 days off of work to help care for me.  He logged my drains, my pain meds and made sure I ate and drank.  He set an alarm on his phone for every 3 hours so I would get my pain meds on a schedule.    He even got up in the middle of the night every 3 hours to get my pain pills.  I would barely wake up enough to sip water from the straw cup and swallow whatever pill he gave me!  He was an incredible nurse!

And I was a hot mess.  The pain meds and valium made me weird emotionally.  And feel weird physically.  I was relaxed and hyper at the same time.  I would talk a million miles a minute and then suddenly fall asleep in the middle of a conversation.  Numerous times I would be trying to type something from my phone to text or facebook and drop my phone on my face because I feel asleep.  Tim would take my phone away and put me back to bed.   It was messy and funny and crazy all at the same time!

Physically I was afraid of my incision.  It was so long and looked so scary.  I have to wear a binder for the first 6 weeks.  The one they gave me in the hospital is so uncomfortable.  It rides up and the velcro is itchy.  I can't get in and ut of it by myself.  Here are a few pictures of how I looked the first few days:

Here is my totally ridiculous binder.  And you can seethe drains hanging of my hips.  the collection bottles hitthe foor.  I still don't know why Dr. Buchanan left them so long!  LOL

Here is what my incision looked like the first week.  It is still covered my a steri strip kind of bandaid/tape/

The incision and my drain on the left

 Incision and drain on the right. 

In the side views you can also see the areas of bruising on my hips and butt from the liposuction.

Here are some full body pictures.  

 My legs looks swollen as well.  And they are.  When he made his incisions he disrupted the lymphatic system that helps get rid of toxins and fluids from your body.  So my thighs were sloshy and swollen for a few weeks. And measurable larger around..... much to my disgust!