Mikaela’s Blog: Mother’s Perspective on Recovery
August 26th, 2009
The Drive Home. Mikaela informs me that she doesn’t have much discomfort at all and that she can’t really even remember being in the recovery room. Ha-ha! Again, that is completely normal.
First Week of Recovery. At first Mikaela was content to just sit with bags of ice on her chest. I encouraged her to walk around every hour or so and she drink tons of water, which she does all of the time anyway. Her appetite was fine by the first evening. By day 3 she was bored, as one can only watch so many episodes of Sponge Bob and The Office. Mikaela had used her graduation money to buy a new computer for college, so she decided to use this down time to work on getting everything transferred over and become familiar with how it all worked. She wanted to stop taking all of her pain meds early, but I had to encourage her to continue through day 3 for the anti-inflammatory benefit. Besides, the maximum swelling doesn’t happen for a while and some pain might accompany that swelling. Of course, that’s why ice is so important to keep the swelling to a minimum.
Please check back to read Mikaela’s reflections on surgery and her recovery.
A Mother’s Perspective on Cosmetic Surgery for Teens
August 13th, 2009
Mikaela first expressed an interest in having breast augmentation during her junior year in high school. It was always a struggle to find swimming suits and dresses for events such as Prom, because she never quite filled out the bust line very well. She would spend hours trying things on to find something that she felt looked okay. I realize that some of this was just her age, but most of her concerns were legitimate.
At her request, I actually asked Dr Bashioum about breast augmentation for her. He recommended that she wait until she was 18 years of age and perhaps even until after the completion of high school. Needless to say, Mikaela was disappointed. I was relieved that it would give her time to really consider whether or not this was something that she wanted to pursue. We discussed the surgery at great length and the fact that this is a decision that will affect her future in many ways. There are distinct advantages to being a nurse and it proved to be very helpful having the firsthand knowledge of many kinds of surgery. I knew that implants do not last forever and her implants will, at some point in the future, have to be replaced. Would she be financially and emotionally mature enough to handle that?
Check back to read about our consultation with Dr. Bashioum.
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