My New Holsters

Yup, I have some new holsters.  Not the kind you're thinking of.  These are some slick new covers I made for my drains so that I can look somewhat normal going out in public.  Tucking the drains under ones shirt isn't the best look and leaving them hanging out is, well, gross.  So, I took an old t-shirt and made some little pouches to hide the drains. Voila! Problem solved.  See the photos below for the before and after.

And what was the occasion that would cause me to get out of my beloved sweat pants?  I had made plans to go to the Children's Theater with our neighbor on Saturday before the cancer diagnosis.  I felt good enough to go so I gussied myself up a little and off Alice I went.  It was Alice's first time there and she loved it.  Thanks Jenny and Edith!

A quick health update: We went to our first post-surgery doctor visit on Friday and I had two of the four drains removed.  There's a bit of skin on my right breast that didn't "take" (i.e., it died) so I'm going in tomorrow for an office visit procedure where the plastic surgeon will remove the skin and sew it up again.  This happens sometimes when the skin gets a little too thin when the general surgeon removes the breast tissue. The goal is to remove as much of the tissue as possible while leaving enough viable skin for the plastic surgeon to sew up.  It's not a big deal - it will just delay my "fills"(i.e., adding fluid to the expanders to start to build out my new chest).  

Thank you all, dear friends, for keeping us in your prayers.  I truly believe that I'm doing so well in the healing  process because of all of love and good thoughts coming our way.

Love,
Lisa

Check out the unsightly drains.  The drains collect excess fluid from my
healing wounds on my chest.  I empty them and record the amount of fluid
collected a couple of times a day.  When my wounds are sufficiently healed and
aren't producing  as much fluid, the drains will be removed.  

Lark's comment on this picture, "Yuck, Mom.  You shouldn't put that on the blog."
That just makes me want to put it up here more.  Is that wrong?

Ta da!  Drain holsters:-).