(I don't know if you can see, but I AM GROWING EYEBROWS AND EYELASHES!!! WOO HOO!)
My surgery went well and there were no complications. I was told the surgery was about 3.5 hours, I don't know... one minute we were talking about vacations, honeymoons, and music and the next I was in some serious pain in recovery. I still haven't heard anything about the pathology results, but I'm going with no news being good news.
I wasn't that nervous going in to this surgery, I think mainly because this was the last step. I've already gone through hell and back and made it out alive; so this should be a piece of cake. Piece of cake may have been a little strong I'm realizing now. While the surgery went smoothly, the initial recovery was pretty rough. I remember waking up and screaming/crying because I was in so much pain, so they promptly gave me some good pain meds. After I became pretty stable I was to be moved to my own room for the night. Waiting for the transport team was excruciatingly long. Apparently I was low on their priority list. I almost wish they would have just left me in recovery because when the transport team did come, they put me back in some serious pain.
With this surgery I am not able to move my arms above my shoulders. Well, I had a blood pressure cuff on my right arm in recovery and when they came to transport me, they had to take it off. They were not very careful in doing this though, nor was he gentle. He raised my arm up (extremely painful) and yanked the cuff off. So I was not a happy camper to say the least and told my nurse as soon as I was in my room.
I digress... I go in to my room and was thankful and surprised to see a little note on my board from Alli. It was nice to know there was a familiar face roaming the halls. All of my nurses were fabulous and all of my PSAs were as well. That first night was rough, in all ways. I was still in so much pain, so I was getting meds via my IV. I had no appetite and pretty much stayed in my bed trying to eat a few ice chips when I could. In the middle of the night I decided I needed to go to the bathroom. Now this was interesting and a production. I was hooked up to the IV pump, so I had to have the nurse help. I got out of bed and started shuffling to the bathroom, which was maybe ten feet from my bed. I made it maybe three feet before I got extremely nauseous and dizzy. At that point I couldn't move, so my mom brought a chair over for me to sit and the nurse brought be a bucket to hold. I couldn't help it, I started vomiting. Now let me tell you... vomiting when you haven't eaten or drank anything really hurts. Actually, I lied. I did eat something, about one bite of a grape popsicle. So I was throwing up lovely stomach acid and a tiny bit of purple sugar water. Lovely. That was not what I had in mind for my first out of bed excursion.
Zofran was my friend for quite some time following surgery. My body was not a fan of the anesthesia for surgery. Most people only spend one night in the hospital after a bi-lateral mastectomy. I had to spend two. Thursday was not much better than Wednesday evening/night. I didn't really get out of bed except to go the ten feet to the bathroom. I was on pain medication and Zofran every four or five hours. The WORST part of all of this was the reaction I had to the pain meds. Itchiness. My WHOLE body was on fire and itched like crazy. I couldn't even keep the hospital gown on. I literally was in my undies and surgical bra. It was awful. So on top of the anti-nausea medication, pain medication, I was now also on Benadryl.
Well now that I've shared probably more information than you cared to know, I'll move on. After spending another night in the hospital I felt much better. Friday morning I actually was hungry. I hadn't eaten anything since Tuesday evening at this point. I was so hungry that my eyes were WAY bigger than my stomach. I could only eat four or five bites of anything and then I was full. So I had a little bit of graham crackers and peanut butter (thanks Jess), a few bites of butter toast, a few bites of peanut butter toast with sliced banana, and a few bites of oatmeal. I couldn't order just one thing for breakfast, it all sounded so delicious.
Before I was able to go home, we had to learn how to take care of my wounds. I was not looking forward to this at all. The breast health nurse, Nancy, came to my room and taught Colin and my mom want to do. Even though I opted for this surgery and knew I'd be losing my boobs, I wasn't ready (and I'm still not ready) to look at my incisions. We had to change the dressings once a day and clean everything with peroxide. I have these two lovely drains on either side that we also have to empty at least twice a day and "strip". While Nancy was going over all of this my mom asked a million questions and made me very anxious about all of it... it was too much. Colin even had to sit down and look away for a few minutes. The drains just suck. There is no way around it. Wednesday night the left drain was so full that I couldn't breathe. And I'm stuck with these lovely drains for at least ten days, but probably more like 16 (or if I'm REALLY unlucky 22).
I think that's all for now. I'll fill you in on the adventures of being home in the next post.
Until next time...
AD
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