It started off by me waking up late and getting stuck in traffic on I-45 on the way to the hospital. I wonder if that was a sign from God? Once I got to the hospital, I checked into pre-op and waiting for the doctors to arrive. The nurse was unable to get a good, working IV, which made me more nervous - on top of being dehydrated from being NPO for too long. My sugars were kind of high, but I had to skip my nightly insulin the night before. Dr L. and Dr A. came into my 'pod' and discussed the surgery with me and answered any final questions I had. Dr L. explained how they will be taking my sentinel node in both of my arm pits to see if the cancer has spread to my lymph nodes or shows any signs of progression. As if I wasn't worried enough! But as the anesthesiologist tried to inject my sleep meds into my IV, they found it wasn't working. So as they wheeled me back into the OR and strapped me to the table, they had to access my port. Dr L. came into the ER, sat on a stool next to the bed and held my hand. I told her I was freaking out and my anxiety was getting the better of me. But she sat with me and talked with me until the anesthesiologist accessed my port and shot me full of juice. Within 3 seconds I was out.
I woke up in recovery, which was pretty uneventful. I remember having to stay down there longer than I needed to because they couldn't figure out how to draw labs if they weren't allowed to do a venipuncture on either arm. I woke up again being wheeled down the halls toward my room. When we arrived, the transporters were oh-so-amazed that I wasn't able to get into my room bed all by myself. Only after I broke down into tears and told them I couldn't move did they finally find a way to slide me over. So I felt pretty ashamed of myself.
The rest of the day I spent in and out of a morphine fog. I don't like doping myself and I hate how pain medicines make me feel, but I was crying every time I got up to go to the bathroom and every time I tried to sit up in bed. Dr A. came by later that evening to check my wounds again and talked with my family. He told me there were some problems in the OR. Apparently I have decreased blood flow to my breast, so a good portion of the skin in necrotic and will need extra time to heal. He said he placed the expander in there, but I will need extra time to heal before he is ready to start pumping me up. All we can do now is wait and see if it heals on it's own over time - but worst case scenario is that we'd have to do a skin graft. Ouch.
My mom and my aunt were with me and Jeremy all day, but they had to head back to Tyler after the doctor checked on me. Jeremy sat next to the bed and watched TV with me the rest of the night. But the morphine wasn't making me much company, so I wound up falling asleep during one of the shows. I was woken up 2 more times during the night for nurse checks and for vitals and of course, a painful trip to/from the bathroom.
No comments:
Post a Comment