Better each day...

Happy Friday, everyone! 

Yesterday was a pretty great day for me! The first awesome thing that happened was one of my best friends, who lives in Atlanta, just came casually strolling into my room. 

She came home for the weekend because her dad is graduating from college, Congratulations Mr.Tommy, and so she came to hang out with me as a surprise! She is a sneaky little Georgia Peach, as this is like the 4389 time she has been able to surprise me in one way or another! Love you, Brit! 

The second awesome thing that happened yesterday is that I believe I passed that stupid kidney stone! Thank goodness!

The third and final awesome thing that happened yesterday was that I got two of my drains taken out yesterday, so I am down to two! I was so nervous yesterday to get my drains taken out, because I didn't know what to expect. The doctor was running behind and by the time he came into the room, I was almost in tears I was so nervous! First of all, I didn't know if it would hurt to have them removed, and secondly I didn't know how long or extensive the process was to take them out! Dr. P removed the stitches holding those two drains, one on each side, and then simply pulled them out! He asked me to take a deep breath and it felt just like a pinch of pressure, but that was it. Those two particular drains were kind of in my armpit crack, between my chest and my arms. I could actually feel the drains if I ran my hand over the area and it was an incredibly tender. Thank goodness those were the ones he took out! I am much more comfortable today. 

I get the other two out on Monday! I am so excited!

Each day I realize how many factors I didn't take into consideration when beginning this journey. I like to share these things so people who are going through something similar will maybe have a heads up when these situations arise for them.  One of the things I didn't realize was how little energy I would have throughout this process. 

Today, I went on my first fun outing since surgery. My aunt picked me up, took my to get a haircut, out to lunch, and then to target! My haircut, by the lovely Mrs.Jennet, went great! The only hiccup was since I have on so many bandages, plus a shirt and a cutting cape, I got too hot while she was blowing dry my hair and we had to take a break. My hair looks fabulous!

After my haircut we went to Tijuana Flats, which is a Mexican restaurant by my house. They have a salsa bar with like ten types of salsa and I couldn't reach over the bar to get my own. I felt kind of embarrassed for a second because I had to have my aunt get my salsa and then if my drink was set down too far back on the table and I couldn't reach it, then she had to pass it to me. I sat and thought for a second and then realized that there is no reason for me to feel embarrassed. If someone was watching me and making judgement about me because of my movements then they are probably not a very nice person to begin with! Sometimes you also have to remind yourself that people probably aren't even paying attention to you anyways, so there's nothing to worry about. 

After lunch, we went to target where we were for a whopping 5 minutes before I realized 'Holy guacamole, I'm tired.' Luckily, my aunt realized I was tired too and we ended our afternoon adventure! 

The reason for my play-by-play of my afternoon is so you have an idea of how little activity you can do before you need to take a nap! I can go a million miles an hour under normal circumstances, but not right now. All the medications I am on, along with the anesthesia still in my system, make me have little to no energy. It's hard for me, because I think I can do more than I can handle and then I end up extra exhausted at the end of the day, which you don't want to do to yourself.
  
If I was going to make a recommendation to anyone who is going to be getting a mastectomy in the near future, it would be to start getting out of bed without using your hands at least two weeks before your surgery. I know it sounds crazy, but essentially only using your abs to get out of bed is super hard. Once you have the hang of it, it's easy but you should prepare yourself because once you have the surgery, there's not catching yourself with your arms to get up. 

My song of the day is This Ain't Nothin'- by Craig Morgan because in the big scheme of things, this little bump in the road ain't nothin'.

Hope everyone has a happy hour filled Friday and a great weekend!