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The trick to healing, is giving yourself one week to be lazy. This means being waited on hand and foot, it means relying on others. In my opinion.

Those first few days your body is really suffering from the trauma of surgery, both physically and spiritually. The loss of your boobs, comes now. Even with reconstruction. You have lost your boobs. For me, there was no more sensation. It felt like a balloon was on my chest and then someone would touch the balloon, not touching me; their sensation never returned.

Sure you have the appearance of boobs, possibly still a nipple, mine was saved, which made me feel lucky. But they are not your boobs. Honestly, you might feel fake. To the core fake. The emotions get real, you realize there is no turning back, no getting back your own boobs, the ones with feeling.

What you do with this feeling, is what determines your fate. We cannot and should not be happy all the time. Being mentally healthy means feeling ALL the feelings. Allowing them to come and be processed. That doesn’t mean you are always happy, optimistic and perky. Even if your new tits are. 😉

So I allowed these feeling to be felt and focused my active attention on physical recovery. The tendency is to lean forward, hunch, round and not move your arms hardly at all. I found this okay for a bit. What I would do differently is to move them more. Not a lot, but more.

For two weeks I had my normal drains and then another pack on me that stimulated the tissue to grow, these were like huge adhesive pads stuck to my chest with a little energy pack attached. So there were a lot of wires and tubes to be worried about. Don’t worry about the drains, they are REALLY hooked in there. I figured maybe they were in a couple inches…. try like 6 inches! When they removed them it was insane. So after seeing that I realized I can move the arms more and that the drains are not going to “fall” out.

So for the first two weeks, relax and let others help you. and take over with daily life tasks. Allow people to bring you food, help you shower (a good shower feels SO good!). Take this time to move your arms and body like they suggest and don’t be afraid to do so. It will help speed up the recovery later.

I was blessed with a family that came to my rescue. My mom took the girls for a few days, my sisters took over daily life with the girls once they returned home and waited on me hand and foot. They know exactly how I like my tea now, lol. This allowed Robb to take off a few days only and return to work. He works from home so he was always around to boost my spirits with a kiss and compliment.

As the weeks progressed, you will see MASSIVE improvements in the reconstructed chest (if you go that route). At about one year they are what they will look like. I under went a couple surgeries in that time. Fat transfers and such to try and plump up the implants because I was lean there wasn’t much tissue other than skin.

As I mentioned, the fakes are never as good as the real. Plus, what we need to remember is that when we are laying down our musculature relaxes. All our imbalances disappear. They place the implants, they look good. Then we wake up, your muscles contract, your bones get pulled into the habitual bad posture from the years of throwing things (15 years softball and 3 javelin) and what you get is a lopsided chest.

Lets fast forward a bit through a surgery to transfer fat from my stomach to chest, legs to chest, a surgery to lift the right boob, and one more to switch out the implants to a firmer bigger implant to try and fill the space; all trying to make the boobs feel real again.

Bottom line, for me… I was destined to be flat, genuine and reclaim my body image.

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Tips For First Weeks of Recovery

• Designate your “spot”. Set up daily in the spot that is most convenient. Have pillows, air flow, drinks and snacks all within super close. You will not want to reach out too far.
• Stay hydrated, take a probiotic, eat lots of fiber.
• DRIED APRICOTS! Forget the stool softeners, just eat 1-2 dried apricots a day. Problem solved.
• Keep your drains clean and emptied on a regular schedule. Write it all down, one they are low output you get to take them out!
• Add pockets inside your zip up sweatshirt, this is PERFECT to keep the drains out of the way and the tubes from getting pulled on.
• Can we say dry shampoo?!? I swear by the Dry Bar dry shampoo. Works so good. Add it to your freshly washed and dried hair to absorb as the oil forms.
• BEST POST SURGEY BRA: https://shefit.com/ These bras are an investment, but they adjust around the rib cage and on the shoulders. They also have a zipper close and can work for ever. Truly amazing. It is all I wore with my implants.