The Emotional Meltdown That Never Came

From Madeleine & Rico

This is something I meant to blog about the first week I was home from the hospital but never got around to. I thought it was interesting and important to note though, so I wanted to get it down here and now. It has to do with the Day Five Meltdown.

Back in March, when I spoke to a few friends who had experienced mastectomy/reconstruction surgery, they had both independently mentioned the emotional meltdown that came around the fifth day after surgery. They described it as being teary, weepy, bitchy, depressed, and feeling like an all around emotional mess. Warn those who'll be taking care of you, they said, so they won't think you're completely losing it. It's normal and to be expected. One of them said she thought it had to do with lasting effects from the anesthesia.

Dr. D, my plastic surgeon, gave me a similar heads-up when she came to see me in the hospital two days after surgery. She said it often happens with patients who've had breast surgery and seems to be connected to hormones. That follows, especially when the meltdown description sounds like raging PMS times twenty.

So, on the Wednesday following my surgery, Day Five, I was all ready for the meltdown that never came. Didn't feel the slightest twinge of anything. I wasn't too surprised, since I never experienced any of the usual side-effects coming out of the anesthesia (nausea, fuzzy head, drowsiness) but I thought it worth mentioning.