SurvivingInfidelity.com^®

Two pieces of good news today: 1) we've gotten no indirect (or direct) communications from numbnuts (hooray!) and 2) I arrived home from the hospital about an hour and a half ago. Surgery went well; she was able to do just one incision for the cancer and sentinel node biopsy, so I don't have an incision in my armpit! So far extra strength Tylenol and ice are doing the trick. She offered to prescribe Percocet but I'd rather not take it in case I felt like I needed some Xanax over the next few days... OK, who am I kidding, I know I will need some Xanax!! And I don't like how pain narcotics make me feel so loopy.

Only downside was the schedule ran behind and my 11AM time got pushed back to just after 12:15PM. And this alone wouldn't have upset me except... on the document the surgeon's office sent me last week, it said, in all caps, in all bold, and highlighted in yellow, that I will get a phone call from the hospital the day before the procedure and they may give me a different check-in time than the surgeon did. The document said to ignore whatever the hospital said and to come at the time they were telling me, which was arrival at 9AM for an 11AM procedure. Sure enough when the hospital called yesterday, they told me, "Oh, we've looked at her schedule and it seems like she will be able to start your procedure between 10AM-11AM, so arrive at 8AM. By the time I got the phone call, I reached out to the surgeon's NP but she didn't get my message until this morning. So H and I decided to split the difference and arrive at 8:30AM. Damn, I SHOULD have known to listen to the surgeon's office because if her schedule was going to move earlier, THEY would have called me. As it ended up, I sat in pre-op for over three hours - thank God I had taken some Xanax before leaving the house; but it started to wear off as they were moving me from pre-op. When I met with the anesthesiologist, he asked me if I wanted some 'feel-good' meds to get me through until they knocked me out, which was a big YES! Then I was fine.

No nausea coming out of anesthesia so I had an appetite once I was awake enough to eat something.

So now I wait until my appt. with the surgeon on 7/5 to get final pathology reports. In the meantime, yesterday I called a radiation oncologist that H's connections to UCLA had recommended to us. I will meet with her on 7/7 so she can help us formulate a plan for transitioning to Boston for that. One more piece off of my plate for now.

We'll see how I feel tomorrow!

You really inspire me! I couldn't have handled all that as well as you did! Please get the best night's sleep without drugs that you can. If you are at home, ask your H to take extra good care of you. When I had to take a fairly heavy duty pain pill the night after outpatient surgery, I noticed I wasn't automatically breathing IN as I drifted off to sleep and it scared me. Later, I learned this is a well-known effect of some pain killers. So I bet you can get that good night's sleep, you already have made it this far in good style.

You rock, number 4!

[This message edited by Superesse at 3:44 AM, Saturday, June 24th]

I'm so glad your surgery went well. You are amazing and handling everything with such strength.

Hugs.

So I fell asleep really early Friday night, so I woke up at 6:30 yesterday morning - I typically wake between 8-9AM, so this was early for me. My pain was almost non-existent, and I only took Tylenol once. I did ice on and off most of the day. Went out for a short walk in mid-afternoon... maybe 10-15 minutes. Slept about nine hours last night. We went to our local farmer's market this morning and got some glorious peaches! I also just took a shower, so it was the first time I really got a look at the surgery site. There's quite a bit of bruising, but the incision area is quite small, with just a really strong piece of tape covering it.

So funny story Friday night. I had on two bras (my surgeon's recommendation), with the one the hospital provided me as the one closest to my skin. They put it on me after surgery but before I woke up. When I got home, I kept thinking this must be a really cheap bra because it was irritating me. I'd try to adjust it, then started to think maybe the irritation was from wearing two bras - that maybe they were too tight. So finally at one point, as I was trying to adjust the band, I felt one of those EKG stickers on my side underneath the band! Once I took it off, it felt so much better. Then as I was getting ready for bed and changing into my PJs, H spotted two more EKG stickers on my back! Once again, once we took those off, the irritation from the bra basically was gone!

Yikes, somebody was in a hurry? Hope the patches being left on don't cause you to itch like I did after I had an adhesive grounding pad stuck on my back for 2 hours during a surgical procedure. I couldn't figure out why I had a big red welt show up down my back the next day or so. I get latex allergies. (Calamine lotion to the rescue.)

Anyway, great news you only needed Tylenol!

Sooooo glad your surgery went well!

You impress me …went for a walk at a market the next day!

Now if you can just have a smooth move. I just can’t believe you are doing all these things at once.

Got my final pathology report back this afternoon over the phone. Size: 2mm; clear margin; clean lymph node.

The nurse practitioner even said the surgeon had written a question mark next to the word radiation! I have my follow up next week and am doing pretty good about not doing stuff around the house. A friend of mine who had the exact same surgery I had, but a week earlier, went for her follow-up today and said she was sort of dressed down about doing too much, so she warned me. Warning heeded.

I get out for a short walk once or twice a day and putter around the house. Have spent a lot of time on phone calls with friends, etc. Yesterday and today were probably my first two days without any Xanax since this all started almost a month ago!

Oh YEAH!!!! Whooo that is good news! I presume you have no itching side effects from the EKG stickers they left on you? 😀