Allison and I arrived in our hire car outside the doctor's surgery just before 8 am. As it was, we were 30 minutes early, so we sat in the car and talked. The surgeon arrived about 9 pm, and it took a while to get everything started. He did some drawing on my chest with a magic marker, we agreed upon the size (400 mL) and then I talked with the anestheologist who was quite reassuring. They led me into the operating theatre and I got prepped, there was some small talk and the last thing I remembered was the anestheologist injecting a few ml's of clear fluid into the IV in my left arm...

I didn't remember falling asleep and I didn't remember waking up either. When I finally came became reasonably lucid I was sitting in a chair, sipping some water and drifting in and out of clarity. I'd never had a general anesthetic before, and it wasn't particularly pleasant, in some ways I could recall a lot, but not make a lot of sense. After maybe an hour I was able; with assistance, to get dressed after they had removed the IV. The rain was pelting down outside so they bundled me into the car and Ally brought me home, again I only remember fragments of this trip and went immediately to bed. (~3 pm) The worst feeling was that of dehydration, and I woke up constantly with a dry throat. After a few hours of sleep I felt much better as the anesthesia was out of my body. I was able to get out of bed with a struggle, but most of the rest of the time the pain was just a dull feeling of compression. I ate some food, drank more water and sent a few emails out to people who I wanted to let them know that I was ok.

About 9 pm Ally and I made a short foray to the supermarket so I could get some fresh air and she could pick up some food. That night I slept ok, the only problem was going to the bathroom, as this necessitated a struggle to get up and out of the bed. This morning I feel pretty good and once I've had a chance to stretch my arms and legs I hardly noticed the discomfort at all. My follow-up appointment is at 11 am today, so by a stroke of good luck we can drive there and drop the car off afterwards.

I can't thank Allison enough for her help, I was rather unpleasant at times early on in my recovery, and although I was in a lot pain there is no excuse for treating someone so wonderful with anything less than complete respect. Thank you Allison.

12:50 pm - Well, we just got back from my first follow-up appointment. There wasn't much to be done, my surgeon took off the bloodied gauze from around the incision site (the bellybutton), and replaced it with a smaller one and some antiseptic cream. He checked my breasts and said that they looked good, but naturally quite swollen.
My next follow-up appointment will be next Monday, I'll be fitted with a special bra and taught how to massage my breasts to prevent capsular contracture. They hurt a little bit at the moment, an on-again off-again tingling feeling which even the Lorcet does completely dull, still I can tie back my hair even if it is a bit of a struggle.

Approximately 3 days.

Well, the swelling has started to go down slightly, I can feel the accumulated fluid shifting from my breasts to just under my arms which makes things a little uncomfortable, obviously I can still type ok. The right side is going down a little faster than the left, but I guess this is just one of the vagaries of surgery.