Happy Valentine's Day!

Happy Valentine's Day to everyone out there!  And Happy Anniversary to Greg and Jackie Six (in-laws)!  They were married at 6pm on Valentine's Day!  Woot!  I want you *all* to know how much I appreciate and love all of you for your support!  It has been invaluable through all of this, and you all know how I love attention anyway, ha ha! :)

So, update....Corrie took out the drain two days ago.  It was difficult.  As I explained before, the last 6-8" of the drain gets a little wider, and flat...and look like one of those watering hoses you put in your garden with all the holes in it.  So, imagine this tube hanging out of me for a couple of weeks.  The opening is just big enough for the tube to come out.  Corrie was pulling on it and we actually thought it was stuck, or a scab had formed around the tube or something, it was hard to pull out!  So I was pulling on it and it was coming out only an inch or two, but was coming out.  Finally, after getting a bag of ice and holding it on the girlie parts for a while (which was really unnecessary), I said ok Corrie, just do it!!  Well, she pulled (as I screamed) and what was getting stuck was the wider, flatter part.  Once she got the beginning of that out, I didn't feel another thing!  Taking out that tube which was maybe a foot long (it went straight up my stomach, had to reach my boobs it was so long) took about 30 minutes or so.  I was afraid I was going to have to go to the doctor and have him remove it, ugh!  My right arm drained at 35cc yesterday, so I am hoping it will be at 30 tomorrow and can come out!  She will have to come over after work tomorrow...that will be another one down!  The left leg is still draining over 100cc's, but it has gone down about 5-10 cc's a day...slowly, ugh!  Oh, and when Corrie saw all the stitches around my body, she said "It looks like you were cut in half, like a bad magic trick!"  Leave it to Corrie to make me laugh. :)

Yesterday I got ready mostly by myself.  Charlotte came in just in time to help me hook and zip the compression garment.  It's hard to reach with both hands, it goes from upper thigh to just under boobs on each side.  And it's still very tight, so I have to pull the garment closed while she hooks.  I am hoping the swelling goes down soon!  I wasn't going to shower at all yesterday...well, that was the plan, but I am sure I would have.  Putting this garment on and off and on and off is getting annoying.  It was easier because I don't have to bandage all the stitches now, only the ones that are still leaking.  My upper thighs are leaking, the inner part, I think that's because they don't get much air in there and my left boob, the bottom part of the stitches.  I don't know why that's leaking, but the Doctor said the more activity I do, the more they will tend to leak.  They are all drying up, just those areas slower.  Anyway, the reason I ended up getting ready was because Corrie and I went to the movies, we saw Valentine's Day.  Not what I expected...cute, but not super funny or anything.  I would wait til it's out on HBO or something, ha ha.

I was looking at my thighs this morning in the compression suit, one looks a different shape than the other, but I am hoping it's just swelling.  One has a drain and one doesn't so I would imagine it would be less swollen (that's the smaller one).  We will see.

Nothing exciting planned for me today.  My family has been taking care of me all week so I expect nothing else, although Charlotte did give me a card and a very cute pink coffee mug, it has hearts and things on it too! It's very cute!  I told Gregory we would go out to lunch tomorrow, since we are all going to be home.  It won't be as busy!!

I have emailed a realtor for Charlottesville, so we are going down next weekend to look at houses.  So exciting!

I think that's all for now, one more day after today for me to be home.  I think I will be at work on Tuesday, at least for a few hours until I get too tired.  The swelling is just still bad.  I put on my wedding rings the other night and they slipped right on with no issue, but I haven't been able to take them off since!  It seems like I had a lull in my swelling that day!  I don't seem any worse in the morning, in the evening, etc.  It just seems the same all day long, so the only real issue is the fatigue.  It's normal I know, my body is doing a lot of healing!  I can go in at least for a few hours until I get tired.

Thanks again to everyone for their support and I think I will take pictures at the 3 week mark which will be Thursday.  I don't want to post too soon, as I am still so swollen!  Happy Valentine's Day!!