April 2014 Surgery Sisters

happyteacher,

Wow, how inappropriate of the principal! In no shape or form should he/she be discussing your medical issues with others, exaggerated or not. I do think it needs to be addressed.

I am not sure how it works for you, do you have some sort of teacher's liason etc? Normally I would say you need to talk to HR, but I expect the principal IS HR?

April 10 - Sesrn, skin sparing UMX with TE, SNB, latissimus flap and augmentation:

Wishing you a successful surgery and speedy recovery.  Keep us posted!

No HR.  And the principal is one where if you go over his head in any form he gets livid.  I don't know... not a good solution in this situation.  The last thing I need from him right now is more stress dealing with him being angry... it takes him a looooooong time to get over things.  I think what I will do is next time a coworker mentions something specific, I will address it then.  Or maybe after surgery... I don't know. I am only a few days away and just don't have the emotional energy to deal with him on this at the moment.  

My re excision went well, the surgeon feels confident he got it all.  Apparently I am going to have a lot of swelling this time because of having to go back in before all swelling was gone from the last time. So far he is right :-).  Stitches and dressings all off at lymph node dissection site an also most of the original lumpectomy site.  He went back in on the lower part of the original incision and it isn't as large. 

 Also had the port placed on my right side - now it feels like I overdid it doing pectoral exercises :-)

I spoke with the anesthesiolgist before surgery yesterday and told him of my last experience.  He listened and this time was MUCH better on waking!  No uncontrolled crying, only a little queasiness, not even enought to call it nausea. 

Got to go home in the afternoon and have been sleeping since then.  I do hve pain, but that is what Percocet is for ... But have only had to have one.  I think icing might be on today's agenda as well

Best news is that I can take a shower tomorrow AND shave and use deodorant - yippee! It's been pretty bad since the original surgery :-) 

Medical oncologist next week, sutures out the following week, then I guess will be the next part of this journey. 

Best of wishes to everyone having surgery this week!  Hope it all goes well!

Hope all went well.  Thoughts are with you.

Good morning April surgery sisters!  My BMX with TEs surgery was on Monday.  I came home from the hospital yesterday, and I am feeling pretty good this morning.  I slept well in my recliner last night.  Home nursing will be coming to see me this morning to check incisions and drains.  I  plan to shower today and have my husband wash my hair--that should be interesting!

I had to report to the hospital at 8:30 a.m. on Monday. After completing some paper work, I was taken to a presurgery holding room.  At 9:30 I was scheduled for my SNB injections. Because of my previous biopsy and lumpectomy, I was scheduled for two shots, one deep and one closer to my areola.  The deep shot was given first and was preceded with lidocaine.  It hurt but was over fairly quickly.  The second shot, which is typically more painful, was not bad at all.  This may have been because of the lidocaine that was given earlier or because I just tolerated it well.  Either way it was over quickly, and I got through the procedure.

After returning to the presurgery holding room, I was then prepared for surgery where I met with all of the doctors who would be involved with my surgery.  My breasts were marked up by both my BS and PS.  I was happy to be able to speak to both doctors before surgery.  After being wheeled into the operating room, the last thing I remember is being asked to slide over from one table to another.

I was I in surgery for about four hours and according to the doctors everything went well; however, I have not yet received my pathology report.  My family was not able to see me until around 7 p.m.  I was on a liquid diet but did not eat much that evening.  I had a morphine pump throughtout the night and was comfortable.  I remember looking at the clock throughout the night, and it moving so slowly.

Unfortunately, I did not have a good morning following my surgery.   I was feeling light headed, and my stomach was upset.  I was hungry, but I had difficulty eating because my mouth was so dry from the pain medication.  My husband got me a milkasake from the snack bar, and that was much easier to get down,  Once I was able to get some food into my stomach and switch over to oral pain meds, I felt much better.  I was in pain when I moved about, but it was tolerable.  The nurses told me that it was normal to be in pain the first few days following surgery, even with pain meds.  I did not expect this because everything I had read and was told was that as long as I kept up with the pain medication, I would not have much pain.  Not true for me!  I do know that everyone is different though.

I was scheduled to be discharged the day after surgery but because I had such a rough morning, I decided to stay in the hospital for another night.  I had a two-hour ride home from the hospital and did not feel that I could tolerate it.  Staying was a good decision.  I felt so much better the next day!

I had to wait almost two months between my lumpectomy and my BMX.  The waiting was horrible.  I was extremely anxious.  I feel so much better today and and am happy with my decision to have a BMX.  I can now move on with my reconstruction journey.

Wishing everyone who has had their surgery or facing surgery the best!  Please let me know if I can be of any help to you.

Virginia

Update:  No shower today.  PS says not until drains come out.  My husband did wash my hair.

Best wishes to all recovering and those going in.  I had my lumpectomy and SNB biopsy yesterday.  It was a very long day by the time they placed the guide wire and did the dye injection.  My surgery took place almost two hours later than scheduled.  My throat is so sore from being intibated(never had it hurt this bad) I woke up coughing after surgery and coughed all night.  I thought it strange that I had no wraps or dressings, just glued shut.(no drains) i am very allergic to tapes.  I am sore this morning, but will survive.  Followup in one week.  No node or margin results yet.  Didnt even see my surgeon(talked to his assistant before) and he was gone when I woke up.  Going to try to rest today. 

hang in there Lemonade and vfay!   Onward on this journey!

I am fortunate to have received an excellent initial pathology report from my BC surgeon today.  An additional 4.5 cm of DCIS was found and removed from my cancerous breast during my BMX.  This amount is on top of the 6.2+ cm already removed during my lumpectomy.  I also had clean margins and a clean SNB.  My left breast showed no signs of cancer. 

DiveCat, I don't know for sure, but I am assuming the DCIS was in the same area.  My lateral and posterior margins were not clear following my lumpectomy.

I really appreciate the detail in your post.  I wish you a speedy and gentle recovery!

Wow, 400 cc's already!  Even with the bandages you already look great

I am going to make sure to really emphasize that I tend to get very nauseous very easily. I have never been "put under" but I am pretty sensitive to almost any other drug. Hopefully they get the point! My 2.5 hour car ride home will be much, much worse if I feel nauseous, too.

I'll keep my own fingers crossed (mentally, at least) for your path results.

Sesrn, hope your surgery went well.

Debkayr, good luck with your surgery tomorrow.

I know I've missed sending good wishes to some of you who've had surgery in the last few days, so a big Ehug to all I've missed.  I've been down with a bad cold and haven't been on the boards for a few days.  I was concerned that if I couldn't shake the cold they would postpone my surgery, but as long as there's no sinus infection, fever, or chest congestion, we're still good to go.

Today was my last day of work before surgery, so I have a few days to get the house clean and ready and pick up the last few items.  Still have to find some front close sports bras, which has proven to be more difficult than I expected.

Since it was my last day, I had lunch with two coworker friends.  They gave me a Amazon gift card so I could get some Kindle books to read, and a Pandora Guardian Angle charm for good luck (they know I have Pandora).  One of them is bringing over dinner Easter Sunday since I won't be cooking this year.  They really made my day!

Walmart carries front close sports bras!

http://www.walmart.com/ip/Fruit-of-the-Loom-Comfort-Front-Close-Sports-Bra-Style-96014/13997192