11-25-14 My Eyes are Up Here--The Procedure

Have you ever noticed how people who have "something" done love to talk about it? We go on and on, bringing every subject back to ourselves. We assume that, since we think it's an interesting topic everyone will think it's an interesting topic? Sorry about that!!! If you don't think I'm the most interesting topic, you'd better skip this one!

My day yesterday began at 9:00 when we pulled up to St. Elizabeth's Hospital. If you don't know, Blue Cross/Blue Shield is having major issues with the Catholic Health Initiatives providers and won't pay if you go there. But all my records are there, and they have a better program for breast cancer patients. AND if you jump through about a million hoops and are a cancer patient who has already began treatment through STE, they will give you permission. Which, finally, after many calls to BCBS and conflicting answers on what needed to be done, permission was granted.

Next stop was my short-stay room where I put on a stunning ensemble of pukey lilac paper gown that hooks up to a heater hose. And those gray footie socks are quite the way to top off the outfit!! The nurse got my IV started and gave me some wonderful valium to help me with nerves. I could very easily turn into a drug addict.

Next stop...sentinel node biopsy prep. Let me explain what that means in Kitt's terms...years ago when they did mastectomies it was really a horror story because they had one surgery that they did. They took muscles and about 30 lymph nodes (which run sort of through your muscles under your arms and the removal of them is more painful than the actual mastectomy). That is where you get the stories of women unable to use their arms after surgery or having arms swelling up to elephantine-size.

Now they have discovered that if breast cancer is going to spread to the lymph system it must start with node #1--the sentinel node--before it goes on to node #2 and node #3. However, it's kind of hard to figure out which is the sentinel node because it doesn't look any different and may not be located in the exact same spot for every woman. So you go to radiology and they stick you with 4-6 little shots near the nipple full of radioactivity. It sounds terrible awful, but it's not too bad at all. Little shots and the radiologist has them all done in about 30 seconds and they don't go deep. Then you wait for 30 minutes while this nuclear stuff goes to the sentinel node. Next up is a scan to make sure it's in the lymph system.

During surgery they ran a geiger counter over me to find out which node it is and injected it with a bright blue dye. That way, during surgery, they can SEE which node is the sentinel and remove just that one (or maybe node #2 and #3 also, just for good measure.)

The anesthesiologist made the pre-surgery visit to my suite and I told him, "I tell every anesthesiologist I have that I throw up after surgery. And they always say, 'Oh, I can take care of that.' and I ALWAYS still throw up. Please make it so I don't do that." (He was a few years older than me, if you want a mental image.) He hemmed and hawed and basically said he could not guarantee that. After he left I said, "Boy, that was a downer." But you know what...I never threw up!!! Whatever he did worked like a charm.

My surgery was scheduled for 1:00 but they didn't actually take me back until 2:00. Way to stretch out the suspense!!! I had done pretty well emotionally until the nurse came in and said, "I'm the nurse to take you to surgery." I burst into tears then. She patted me and then began to talk a blue streak to try and get my mind of it. I had calmed down by the time we went into the OR, then one of those nurses said, "Can you tell me what they're doing?" I said, "A bilateral....ma....stec....." and was off crying again. I'm pretty sure the anesthesiologist thought, "Let's get her sedated!!!"

My favorite line of the day...and I think this really happened and it was not part of a dream...the recovery nurse was calling up to tell them I was ready for a room. She said, "It says she's 55-years-old but she looks younger." Yippee!!! I have always thought I looked my age, though. But I'll take whatever compliments I can get!!!

I didn't get to my room until after 6:00 p.m. and then dozed and ate a sandwich and watched some TV. When they have asked me my pain level, I said, "Oh, about a .5." (Yes, you read that right...point five!!!) I have hardly needed the pain pills, taking them only when I want to be sure to sleep. Thank you, God!!! I feel relatively good, which is a very nice surprise.

So, there's my story. I'll send another blog next week covering "The Post-Op." But first I need to have some post-op to talk about!!!



Pray that I can get these two annoying drains out on Monday. They are bulky and gross.

Pray that the pathology report, which should probably be in about Monday, would be good. Just because cancer didn't show up on the MRI, there could still be some small amounts that didn't show up.

Pray I would regain my strength quickly, but not push TOO hard.