Preparing for Surgery

The time between my my first visit with Dr. Neumayer and my surgery was filled with one appointment after another.  I had an MRI on both of my breasts on December 16th.  That was an interesting experience.  I laid on this curved table, face down, with my boobs hanging down in these two holes, and holding on to these two bars.  The tech asked me if I was comfortable. What are you supposed to say?  Anyway this scan lasts for about 30 minutes, and you're supposed to lay still the entire time.  It's very noisy, so they gave my some earplugs to kind of deaden the noise a little, and they played some music through them, but it didn't help much.  I knew after this test that my modest dignity was a thing of the past.  I was glad to have that one over.  The reason for the MRI was to make sure there was no cancer in the left breast and no more in the right breast.  

They had found an area of calcification when they did the ultrasound on Dec. 2nd and it was confirmed by the MRI, so the next test was a cumputer generated biopsy of the calcification. This was another undignified test.  They had me lie on a table, face down with the boob to be biopsied hanging down in another hole.  Then they lifted the table up and worked under it. They found the area with a computer, honed in on it and took two or three samples.  It didn't hurt because they had numbed the area, and it was just a little pop, when they took the samples.  Another test to have behind me, and the results were negative.  GOOD!

After that test, I visited with the anestheseologist for a pre-op check.  I had to have a EKG because I have a Left Bundle Branch Blockage.  It shows up as a little blip on the EKG.  It hasn't affected my heart, but it's something they need to be aware of. 

After all this, I actually got to do something nice for myself.  On the Thursday before my surgery I had an hour massage with my favorite massage therapist, Carolyn Reddington.  It really helped me to relax after everything that had gone on in the last two weeks.  I had to tell Carolyn about the upcoming surgery, so that was a little difficult, but she was great and I found out that she was trained to do the massage to help aleviate lymphedema, which is a condition that can develop in the arm where lymph nodes have been removed during a mastectomy.

So now I was ready for surgery.  It still was six days of waiting, and needless to say, an anxious period of time.