I'm one week post-op, and just recently remembered how much this sub helped me in my journey to getting surgery. Pre-op I couldn't find many people who had top surgery with a Prevena or any other wound vacuum units, so I wanted to post about my immediate post-surgery experience for others who might also be expecting one, or have the choice for one, in their post-op care. 

The surgery itself went very smoothly, I was discharged from the hospital with a drain in either side of my chest like usual, alongside the Prevena unit. It's connected to the purple sponge-like dressing on my chest by a thick tube, constantly applying negative pressure to keep everything in place. With the exception of the tube, everything is covered in clear plastic film dressing, you can see where this ends on my chest by the build-up on its sticky edges. My chest is then covered with compression bandage, just like a tube top. Because the unit is attached to my chest, it needs to be carried around everywhere with me, so it has both a carry strap and a thick clip that I've been using to attach it onto the pockets of my jeans. The unit itself stays on for 14 days after surgery, emits an intermittent whirring/pump sound at all times, and has a rechargeable battery.

Because I don't have any frame of reference for other types of top surgery recovery, I can't say whether using a Prevena is better or worse than a regular recovery binder. I like the mobility it affords me, my chest feels secure and tight so I'm not as worried about re-opening anything. The biggest positive for me is definitely being able to sleep on my stomach, I just lie face down with one pillow under my chest, one under my head and I'm counting sheep with no neck pain in minutes. 

Some negatives are that the plastic film has been placed directly over my armpits, which pulls on my skin & hair and has really irritated the entire area. You can see in the second image that the film has lifted slightly, but it still remains just a gross, itchy area for the time being (also want to add the overt redness on parts of my chest isn't skin irritation but antiseptic, the hospital's had a red dye in it). The dressings for my drains were also placed on top of the film, making removing them finicky as to not lift the film too far off the skin and risk the Prevena unsealing.

So far I've only had soreness and the occasional stinging/light stabbing pain, which regular pain meds have been sorting out fine. Don't really have any sort of fluffy words for how im feeling mentally because having top surgery feels so normal and natural for me, like getting a filling at the dentist or a checkup at the doctor, in the sense that it makes perfect sense for me to have it, that it was always going to happen for me so now my life can finally start. :)

Apologies for the long post! Thanks to anyone who read it all, and I hope it helped someone else along their journey too. 

DI + FNG with Prevena Unit [1 Week Post-Op]