The month of December turned out quite differently than we had expected.  Before I continue I would like to wish all my readers a belated Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

My plastic surgeon, Dr. Kenneth Murray called on December 8th and informed me that he had space in an operating room at St. Boniface Hospital in Winnipeg on December 16th.  If I was still interested in having a panniculectomy and a breast reduction he would schedule them for that day.  The surgeries had been delayed for almost two years due to COVID 19 and my answer was a loud yes.  Quite frankly I cannot believe that I was lucky enough to finally get these surgeries over with.  The reason for the surgeries was an uncontrollable skin condition.

I would highly recommend Dr. Murray.  He patiently answered all my questions.  Because I was from out of town and terribly worried about having to go home with a drain he kindly  made arrangements for me to stay in hospital the first night after surgery.  (I had one drain inserted into my abdomen). The nurses looking after me were kind and patient.  Even though they literally ran from room to room to care for patients they did not let any impatience or annoyance show on their part.  They too answered all my questions.  I went back to Winnipeg to see one of Dr. Murray’s nurses on December 20th.  She checked my dressings and bindings, gave me permission to remove the dressings and bindings so that I could shower.

Tube Top

Abdominal Binder

She then sent me home until after Christmas.  I did not have any old fashioned dressings or stitches.  Dr. Murray placed all but three stitiches on the inside of my body which made the application of potassium chloride and polysporin so much easier to apply.  To keep the bandaids in place I had a tube top covering my breasts and a binder covering my abdomen.  My next appointment was on December 30th.  At this time I saw Dr. Murray , after checking on the healing process he permanently did away with the tube top and the binder.  Above is a picture of the binder I wore around my abdomen after my surgery.  The worst of the after surgery problems was the itching caused by the binder and the tube top.

Needless to say that because of the surgery so close to Christmas I decided to use a small tree with fibre optic lights.  My daughter made up two baskets to be placed in my urns on the front porch and fixed up the two wreaths for the front doors.

Her finished products are always beautiful.  She has an online basket business at https://perfectsentiments.ca.  Check it out.  She makes custom baskets for every occasion and every holiday.

We celebrated Christmas on December 26th at my daughter’s house.  We were the six of us.  As always my daughter prepared an amazing Christmas dinner.  Because of the COVID 19 warnings and the increase of infections in our province we spent the rest of December at home.  I slept, read several books and continued to heal from my surgery.  New Years Eve we celebrated by buying a dozen New Years cookies and devouring every last crumb in the box.  They were so good.

One of the problems I worried about when thinking about my surgery was my occasional heart problems and at times uncontrollable blood pressure.  Thankfully the anesthesiologist who did my pre-surgery checkup assured me that my problems could be handled during surgery.  She assured me that they had medication on hand in the OR that could lower my blood pressure and heart rate much faster than the medication I took on a regular basis.  I was also very impressed with all my records that she had accumulated prior to my appointment with her.  She had records from Dr. Murray, my cardiologist Dr. Rabson and my Hepatologist Dr. Wong.  They did an arterial blood gas while I was in surgery.  I was so afraid of having this done that I asked the resident Anesthesiologist if it could be done after I was sound asleep in the OR.  He asked me why I was so afraid and I told him that when my dad had it done he had nearly broken my hand.  The resident was incredibly kind and spoke to the anesthesiologist on my behalf.  He came back and told me that the arterial blood gas would be done after I was asleep.

I am hoping that I will be able to stablize my blood pressure in the next little while.  It is scary to wake up to a blood pressure of 198/110.  Thankfully the beta blockers I got in emergency after one of my more severe episodes of high blood pressre have helped to bring the numbers down.  It does take patience since the problem is not always fixed after just one beta blocker.  I went for my six month blood work on Monday and will be meeting with my Hepatologist, Dr. Wong on January 20th.  We have Telehealth appoinments which save us a trip into Winnipeg and an hourly parking fee of $12.00.

I have rambled on long enough.  Thank you for your interest in my site.  In closing I wish you all a very Happy New Year filled with much joy, many blessings and leave you with wonderful memories to cherish.