Surgery, at Last!

December 23rd came at last, and none too soon as far as I was concerned.  I wanted this thing out of me and now.  We had to be at the hospital at 9:30am.  So I was up and at it early.  I, of course, had to take a shower, shave my legs and armpits, and wash my hair.  I certainly couldn't go to the hospital without doing all of that.  You remember what your mom always said about being sure you have on clean underwear with no holes, just in case. Well, my point exactly.  

We got to the Huntsman a little before 9:30am and they took me right in to pre-op and started IV's, etc.  I had visits from a plethora of nurses and techs to do this, that and the other, and with each visit, I had to repeat my name and birthday.  They were sticklers at making sure they had the right stuff for the right patient. Comforting!!  Pat was with me during this part and we watched his favorite show 'Desperate Housewives', while we waited.  Pretty soon, Dr. Neumayer's assistant came in and started drawing pretty pictures all over my right boob and chest.  She even wrote the word 'yes' on my right boob.  Must make sure we take the bad one off and not the good one. 

 Then Dr. Agarwal's (plastic surgeon) assistant came in to talk to me about the type of expander they were using to prepare for the reconstruction.  Believe it or not, the expander is made of cadaver tissue.  They were doing a study to see which cadaver tissue worked the best, and wondered if I wanted to be a part of the study.  I said sure, because they would put in whichever one that came up, whether I was in the study or not. 

Finally, I met Dr. Neumayer in the Radiology Dept. to have some kind of isotops inserted into my breast so they could find and remove all the cancer.  Then it was finally off to surgery.  Needless to say, I don't remember anything beyond the surgical doors.  The next thing I knew someone was trying to get me to wake up and I was in recovery.  I didn't feel much at that point, but they told me I had a little button in my hand and if I began to hurt, just push it and it would stop the pain.  I didn't know I was dealing with Morphin, and so about every ten minutes I was pushing the button.  Pretty soon, I was higher than a kite and feeling no pain.  When I got to my room, the nurse asked me if I wanted to go for a walk.  Sure, why not.  We walked around the hall a few minutes and I suddenly felt like I was going to pass out.  I got back to the room in one piece and sat in a recliner, then immediately went into a drug reaction.  My daughter, Amy, said I went as pale as paste and started in a cold sweat.  Thank goodness she was there.  They took the Morphin away from me, which was a very good idea, and tried Loritab instead.  That was just about as bad.  It made me sick to my stomach.  Finally, Amy suggested to the doctor that maybe I'd do better on something that was not a narcotic.  They started me on Toradol, which is a high dose of Tylenol, and it worked. No pain and no reaction.  I was a much happier patient.  

My family stayed with me for quite awhile, but then I needed sleep, so everyone moved on. The night went pretty well, except that the IV in my arm started leaking, and it took three nurses several tries to find another vein to get it restarted.  That was no fun.