Laughter is not the best medicine

At the post-op...
Two tubes went in my chest up where my bra closes. They released the medicine into my belly. Two drainage tubes came out of my hips, they removed the one you can see in this picture. My belly is still quite swollen, so you can see the puckering and lines from the compression garment I have to wear.

Here I am standing up (well, mostly, I'm still hunched as I'm not sure my belly wants me to go all the way vertical quite yet). The one gauze covers my stitched up belly button and the other my incision. I still wear my compression bandage 24/7, though I removed it for this picture and then had a painful time of rolling around the floor trying to get it back on. It's a little itchy, but it's really uncomfortable to not wear it. 

Overall, I am really surprised at how good I am feeling, but that is a pleasant surprise to be sure. Yesterday (Day 3 post surgery) I had my post-op (moved it up by a day so my mom could drive me). We stayed in Boulder from 11:30 till 3:30 as my mom also had an appt. at 3 with her foot Dr. We went to her store, out for coffee, into Barnes and Noble and to two different doctor offices all with no pain meds! At home I mostly lie around (I've watched 30 episodes of SVU the past 4 days), but I have no difficulty getting up or walking around. Sleeping on my back/side is still uncomfortable, but I've been able to sleep like that the past two nights.

The post-op appt. was relatively painless. They took out the two tubes and it felt similar to when we used to sniff noodles and pull them back through our nose. He gave me a little numbing shot to take out the one drainage tube, but you could still feel it being pulled all the way out. That drainage tube went up to my breastbone and felt similar to how it would feel should a long snake be pulled through your body...strange.

The most painful thing by far has been if somebody makes me laugh. I hadn't seen my dad for days as he and my mom were taking care of the kids. When I came over to their house on Sun. night, I went straight to bed, but was watching an SVU (I'm an addict) and he came in to see how I was. He had been in there not three minutes before I was laughing, almost crying, and banning him from my room. The next night, same deal. Funny bastard. I just went to read a blog and I had to close the browser as it was making my belly clench in laughter and that is really the only thing that will send me reaching for the pills right now! No wonder I can only watch SVU...