The Surgery

Tuesday, November 2, 2011.

If today was a bra, it would be a double D day, because it was a big, big day!

We woke up at 5:25 AM, 5 minutes before the alarm clock to go to St Paul Hospital, the first stop of our hospital crawl.

St. Paul, unlike my final destination for the day, has a nuclear medicine department, where my left nipple received a shot of radioactive tracer dye. The role of this substance is to drain via the nearby lymphatic vessels toward the local nodes where it accumulates and signals to my surgeon equipped with the proper detector which nodes she should remove. This procedure is called a sentinel node biopsy where hopefully they will find that the cancer hasn’t infiltrated my lymphatic system.

After this first stop, we continued our hospital crawl to Mount Saint Joseph Hospital and arrived around 8 AM. I first met with my surgeon who went over the surgery and drew where she would make the incision. Then a nurse asked for the fourth time in less than two hours for my birthday (so I expect a lot of presents this year) and offered me a stylish gown and a pair of green socks. My anesthesiologist then joined the party and things started to get very fuzzy...

… Although alertness did not all come back at once, I knew where I was and why my chest was killing me while I drifted in and out for about an hour in the recovery room.

I eventually regained full consciousness thanks to my bladder telling me it was time to get up. My surgeon came to see me. She described the purpose of the two clear and soft hand grenades attached to my chest by tubings disappearing under my bandages. They are drain to help prevent the accumulation of fluid. Although they have a key role in my recovery, I find them quite disgusting. My surgeon also told me that she saw “no cancer cells stuck to the chest wall” (yay!) “and the lymph nodes looked good” (double yay!!)

The definitive answer will come in about three weeks with the final pathology report. In the meantime it looks like all the cancer is gone and this round goes to the slayer.

Wednesday, November 3, 2011.

Last night was tough. After a relatively good afternoon slowly recovering from the surgery and visiting with my parents from Chilliwack, I noticed around 8:00 PM some swelling that made me quite concerned. The nurses and eventually the night doctor came to see and after discussion with my surgeon, it was decided to put a very tight wrapping around my chest and check the swelling in the morning.  Yikes that hurt! I don’t like taking drugs, but agreed to the morphine the doctor offered and it allowed me to sleep until about 3 AM. I guess the morphine had worn off as I woke up with a lot of pain, much of it in my ribs and back reacting to the compression bandages. I felt the need to move around a bit, thinking that it would help manage my back pain. Pascal, who had found a recliner and was able to stay with me, helped me walk down the hallway. Once we arrived by the nurse’s desk, things started to get fuzzy again – not a good sign after the surgery. Fortunately, a nurse found a chair for me before I fainted. I was wheeled back to my room and eventually fell back asleep until about 6:00 AM.  My surgeon came by shortly after and removed the compression wrapping. The swelling had gone down and her answers to my questions about the surgery made me feel better. When I asked her if in her expert opinion, she thought we got all the cancer out, she said ‘Yes’, music to my ears.

Pascal brought me a yummy breakfast, peanut butter on quinoa bread and a freshly made green juice. Everyone should be so lucky to have such a wonderful (and handsome) caregiver.

I shared my hospital room with another woman who had breast surgery. The first time she had it was 7 years ago and she was now having a recurrence treated. At the time of her first diagnosis, she was told that it was non-invasive, like mine, yet it came back. However, they didn’t test her lymph nodes, which is where it came back. This is why it was so important for my lymph nodes to be tested, even if everything is pointing to a non-invasive cancer.  

After visits from the person organizing home nursing, the physiotherapist who briefed me on the exercises I could start right away, and a final tutorial from a nurse who showed me how to empty my drains I was cleared to go home.

We were back home around 11 AM; it’s hard to believe not much more than 24 hours had lapsed since it all started.

Nicely installed on my bed, it did not take me long to fall asleep. I eventually woke up wondering what day it was. It was only 5 PM so I went downstairs to watch some TV before a yummy dinner.  I don’t seem to have lost my appetite, so that’s good!

It’s now getting close to bedtime again and I’m enjoying some time out of my compression bandages. I hope I won’t have to wear them too long, they kill.

Several studies I read throughout my research showed that the more support a cancer slayer has, the better the outcome, so thank you for your love, support, friendship, compassion, jokes, emails, dvds, and books. I really, really appreciate it and love you all. I think I’ll be up for some short visits this weekend. Please use the calendar to let us know if and when you’ll be able to stop by.

Hugs,

Lisa.