Part 2...

At some point in the past few years, many states have enacted majorly conservative regulations with regards to prescribing opiods. I was taking them every 6 hours (suggested dosage was 4-6) and by day 5, I was still having considerable pain, and I was running low on meds. I started trying to stretch them out to every 8 hours and managed a couple of times. Then I tried to go 10-12 hours and my body said screamed NO! I contacted my doctor, and she gave me another 4-days worth.

Sleeping nearly upright is making me CRAZY. I haven't gotten much sleep since the surgery. And while I can't sleep "in", I am a great napper :-) And most days, I take 2 naps.

Day 8 was my follow-up appointment. She said my incisions look great and I'm healing well. There's no bruising, no drainage, and I don't have a ton of swelling. YAY!!! She also said she's confident I'll be a 34C when it's said and done. I was really hoping for a B cup but they look at the position of your breasts root or footprint on your body when deciding how small they can go.

So you'd imagine, that if someone is wide across the body and deep (vertically), going too small could result in, visually, a pretty flat bustline.  Obviously, this may be someone's natural shape! But from a plastic surgery perspective, it makes sense.

Day 8 was my anniversary. We had take out and cake. :shrug: :)  Day 8 was also the first night I slept all the way through without a dose of pain meds. Yay!! 

On day 9, I was feeling pretty good and, while I've been shaking my head at people (in forums/groups I'm in) wayyyyy overdoing it, on this day, I ended up overdoing it!

My mom sews but she gets flummoxed by pattern instructions. I told her to bring a project to work on because I mistakenly thought I'd be pretty mobile by day 7 ish. There are people that claim they returned to work on day 3 or 5 and I just don't see how!!!!! 

I'd helped her make a couple designs for tees on the Cricut the day before and we were ready to do tee #3 and I didn't have any brown HTV. ugh!! So we went to JoAnn to grab some heat-transfer vinyl. Got home, did that, then I started helping her with her pattern. I had it printed through PDFPlotting.com and knew she would balk at tracing it :-) I traced the pieces, cut some out, and made some basic pattern adjustments (e.g. shortening it 2"). All of this took a few hours and was done back-to-back and when I sat down I was WIPED. And aching. Ow. I ended up taking my pain meds an hour "early" (at hour 5 instead of 6). That was just too much activity for me. 

My mom is leaving today and so we had some family over in the evening. So on day 10 (Friday), I went back to chillin, movies and napping during the day (plus 2-3 short walks) so I'd be able to socialize some come evening. But then...my brother and his family and my uncle and his family came over around 7:30 and stayed til around 1:30 a.m. I woke up STRUGGLING today! 

BUT, I have been able to manage with just extra strength Tylenol. Woot woot!

I still have restrictions:

-A few more days of avoiding reaching above my head which matters because I'll be home alone during the day once my mom leaves. One day, I was feeling pretty good and decided I'd fix my own breakfast! Turned on the Keurig, oops. I can't reach the mugs. I'll warm up some chicken (she made me chicken and waffles for breakfast and DROOL)...oops. I can't reach the foil. Sigh...

The other part of lifting the arms is...I've been restricted to button/zip front clothes. Since I've been home, that's meant 2 pajama tops and 2 hoodies that I've been circulating. 

-No lifting more than 5 lbs. I'm not lifting much of anything.

-No strenuous activity. I've wondered if I should suspend my gym membership because it'll easily be pushing into a 2nd billing cycle before I'm able to go and do more than walk.

-I'm cleared to drive once I am off the pain meds but riding in the car as a passenger has NOT been that fun so I'm not sure I'll be in a hurry to be driving around. 

I'd ordered 2 of these bras from Amazon (no affiliation) in a large and removed the pad. They've worked out really well. I went back and ordered a 4 pack. I'll be wearing sports bras for 6 ish weeks and spending $40 on 6 sports bras is pretty much a steal. Once I'm cleared for exercise, I'll need them because my old ones will be too big! Yay!! 

I read a gazillion (no, really!) stories about people's experiences with reductions and it's SO true that progress happens pretty quickly. 

I think I've mentioned that I have been posting updates on IG periodically. I've gotten so much support, lots of questions, and some jokes related to sewing :)

The one thing that people may really have questions about is - what does this mean for the FBA?

I will finish, per my surgeon, as a "C cup". This is a C cup in bras. Meaning, the difference between my underbust and full bust will be ~3 inches.

With sewing patterns, the "B cup" is a 2" difference between your high bust and full bust. My current UB measurement is about 33" so I wear a 34 band. Add 3 inches to that for a C cup and assume my FB measurement will be 37 inches. My high bust is 36". I should have no issue using patterns as-is when drafted for a B cup.

Before surgery, my HB was 36 and FB was 39.5. This 3.5" difference is why I needed an FBA. And depending on the pattern, my FBA is 3/4" to 1".

And even with patterns with cup sizing, I used the C cup pattern piece because the D had way more projection that my body does. With very fitted patterns, I'd have to do a small FBA (1/2") on the C cup piece.

Clear as mud? Great! :-p