Thank you
all for the prayers, well wishes, and healing energies… Jess and I have been
blessed and held in your love. We’ve
both felt completely supported by this grace and it has been doubly wonderful
to be so aware of it all.
Wednesday
was a very long day, and one that we are grateful to have gone so well, and
also grateful that it is now over.
First was
another set of mammograms taken against a numbered/lettered grid so that they
could exactly map the location of the two small tumors. It’s somewhat more complicated than working
on a specific organ… then the doctor knows what he/she is looking for and where
to find it and can see it with the naked eye.
Using the grid over the mammogram film provides coordinates to place the
pins. These long thin needles are about
3-4 inches long, and while the end inserted into the breast is rigid, the tails
are not. That allows them to bend and be
covered by a pocket bandage taped to the breast so that they don’t get knocked
about and the gown can be closed up. All
of this was done with a local anesthetic.
Second, was
going to Radiology, where I was injected with a radioisotope dye in the same
spot the needles were bracketing. That
shows up on the scan within a few minutes and allows identification of which
lymph node is the sentinel lymph node… that’s the first one in which cancer
cells will most likely get caught in if the cancer has spread beyond the breast
tissue.
Third, was
Pre-Op. We spent a couple of hours
there, mostly just waiting. Me in the bed, wearing a very stylish paper
gown. Jess, either in the chair, or at
the foot of the bed, giving me a foot massage.
The gown was rather amazing, insulated on the inside, and with Velcro
openings wherever the medical team might want to access. Very clever, comfortable, and warm!
The anesthesia
team came to talk about that process and I asked them to keep my head, neck,
and spine on the same plane because of the herniated disc at C5/6. If my head gets tipped in the wrong position,
it pinches a nerve and hurts like hell.
They were very accommodating, and once they wheeled me into the OR, I got
a pillow under my knees, and the extra support under my neck. This was very good. They also introduced me to every member of
the surgical team I hadn’t already met.
At 3:00 pm they put me on oxygen for a few moments, and then added the
“tequila” (as they called it), and I was probably unconscious by the third
breath.
I woke up in
the Post-Op Recovery Room about 5:30, where Jess was. Eileen was also there, having stopped on her
way home from work. It was good to know
that they were there, and had each other for company as I spent much of the
next hour drifting in and out of the anesthesia. By about 6:30, I was able to keep my eyes
open. Sarah Blair, my surgeon, stopped
by to check me and then we got to go home.
I had a
couple of sips of water (remember I hadn’t had anything to eat or drink since
10pm the night before, now about 20 hours), got a bit nauseous, used the acupressure point for reducing nausea which worked for a while. We got home just after 7pm and I threw up the
little bit of water I had drank. The
feeling of nausea was gone, but I still couldn’t keep anything down for more
than a few minutes. I also wasn’t able
to stay awake for more than a few minutes at a time. So, that’s how the evening progressed…
sitting on the couch very comfortably, watching TV with Jess, dozing off for a
few minutes, coming back to, sip something or nibble on toast, throw it up a
few minutes later into the ever-present basin.
By the time we went to bed at 10pm, I still hadn’t managed to keep
anything at all down. I woke back up at
2am, got up and shared half a banana with Jess, threw that up about two minutes
later, gave up and went back to bed.
By the time
I was finally able to keep anything down, it was about 33 hours. And I wasn’t hungry or thirsty, but I started
on applesauce and Jess brought me little nibbles and juice all day and now I’m
back on a regular schedule.
The only
other thing out of the ordinary was my urine turning bright blue for about 24
hours. After the breast surgery, I was
injected with a dye to help the doctor find the sentinel lymph node under my
arm. Now, everything looks normal.
Yesterday, I
spent the entire day on the couch with a book, dozing off and on. My brain is clear enough to follow the book,
but not enough to really talk with people.
Even with Jess, I get distracted and then can’t remember what we were
discussing. Today, I’m
still a bit foggy, but getting clearer.
Jess helped me yesterday to wash my hair at the side of the tub with the
handheld sprayer. The rest of me just
got a sponge bath. This may sound
frivolous, as I’d showered Wednesday morning before we went to the hospital,
but it absolutely necessary to help shake off the ‘sick’ energy and rev up the
healing energies. It immediately and
noticeably brightened my energetic field.
I had woken
up in Recovery wearing a zip-front sports bra that is containing the bandaging
and using compression to keep the swelling down. I can take it off after 48 hours, so late
this afternoon I’ll be able to take a real shower. And see what the new landscape of my body looks
like.
So there it
is, my very own Grey’s Anatomy episode.
Jess and I talked about this while we were hanging out in Pre-Op. Things look very different now that we’ve
watched 10 seasons of the show in about 8 weeks on Netflix.
In the
meantime, although it’s not yet lunchtime, I feel like it is late
afternoon. Which probably means I need
another nap.
###
No comments:
Post a Comment