May 2016 Surgeries

Good luck Angtee!

GreyKat, glad to hear things are improving and that they have the pain under control. I'll be looking forward to more updates.

I'm not needed at hospital until 10:15; hoping to be home by 2:00, but would settle for dinner time - kids still need to be run around, as life goes on regardless of what mom's going through. Praying that there's an outside chance that Flotsam and Jetsam will go away after today, but I'm not getting my hopes up.

Good luck to Kluga5, Angtee15 and tsoebbin on your procedures today, and to everyone who is scheduled for the rest of this week as well. Check in when you can and let us know how you're doing.

grandma - I had P block back in 2010 when I had the BMX, and my BS/PS explained this about the vitals - and also explained the significance of this benefit since the patient is less physically stressed during the surgical procedure itself. One of the reasons opioids are used during the surgery is to control pain and blunt the physical trauma of the procedure, but if you can accomplish this with a block instead of opioids the patient does better - and the mid-surgical quantifier is the vital signs. I know you know a lot about this as I have followed your posts on your first surgery and how well you did with your requested anesthesia plan.

wenchlori - I also have Tricare, and have had a lot of treatment, there have been a few minor glitches but if you see a referral (use the online website for your region) they will honor the claim. The beauty of having everything pre-authed is that you usually have no surprises. The only issues I have had are when a test was done without obtaining the auth in advance and trying to secure an out-of-network PS, which I was able to do.

hi. Still in hospital. Agree that the nerve blocks are supposed to be wonderful and use them if you can get them. It lets them skimp on giving you opioids and the problems that come from that.

Just because the blocks failed on me and I had zero painkillers in my system does not mean that will happen to you! I've had a lot of fentanyl and some other drug that causes kidney damage but was the only thing they could stack on top of the drug cocktail that made it hurt less.

They keep changing my meds, they've given up on my hand damage, they gave up trying to stabilize my blood pressure, and say all we can do is wait and see how bad the black nipple gets. I've also developed a giant hematoma. Even with all this they are discharging me today.

I feel stitches in my chest wall pulling sharp and painful.

I still think this was the right decision.

Also because of my past problems with waking too early out of the anesthesia, they skipped using a paralytic so I would be able to move and they'd know right away if I was waking during surgery. I also had a monitor for my brain waves to be extra sure they caught it early if I began to wake mid-surgery. I am so grateful they did that so I actually stayed under this time.

Good luck Wednesday ladies. I'm convinced we're all rock stars for surviving this

Hey ladies - I'm finally home because they reached a point where they just couldn't do anything more for me. I have a hematoma on my left side that is spreading into my arm and down towards my elbow - same hand with nerve damage. Black skin is still black, and they told to just watch for it to start peeling off the way necrosis happens. Somehow I have more range of motion with my left arm than my right, which makes no sense cause this was bilateral mastectomy. My pain is not good but they amped up my scripts and told me to double the Perc. Mostly because of two days' worth of tinkering with drugs trying to find some combo that works I've been dizzy almost the whole time. Still so dizzy typing is hard. THey also said that's because I'm "small" so the meds act a bit funkier. IDK I'm not a pharmacist.

Didn't eat anything at the hospital the entire time which upset the staff, but I just wasn't hungry. I also had one of those behind-the-ear patches to control vomiting after anesthesia. I nearly threw up on the ride home anyway, and a few sips of juice and two bites of a dish my inlaws dropped by and I was all I could do not to throw up again.

They've doubled my nitropaste usage to try and save the black skin if at all possinle. So yes, now I DO have a headache, and am dizzy, BP still like 80/40. I guess that's just how it's going to be until the week of nitrogel ends and we see what died and what will be peeling off.

Exhausted from the pain. Thanks for all your support and good luck to the rest of the surgery stars this week.

Good luck to all of today surgery ladies, wishing you a pain free evening.

GreyKat, hopefully you will be feeling better now that you are at home.

Monicammori, good luck. I am sorry and I hope they would find something that will work for you soon.

monicammon, what pre-op testing? Before my port placement I had an ekg when I met with the anesthesiologist? is this the pre-op testing? I also met with BS and though my blood pressure spikes (white coat syndrome for sure) they scheduled me anyway?

I meet with the anesthesiologist again 1 week before surgery, and I think they will do the same thing again? Is that what you didn't pass? Now my blood pressure will spike for sure.

Hi, all. Got home from the hospital following nipple excision at 3:00 and promptly fell asleep again. It's 6:00 p.m. here now and I just had a taco salad for dinner – was ravenous after not having anything since yesterday, per instructions in prep for the general anesthesia.The PS examined me prior to the procedure and it was good that we had waited so long, because the necrosis was not as extensive as he initially thought. Much of the black had scabbed and then sloughed off leaving healthy pink tissue underneath. On the left side he was pretty sure that I was going to lose the nipple, but the areola was fine.There was more extensive damage on the right side, which is the side that had the prior lumpectomy/radiation, but it still wasn't as bad as he thought, though I lost more tissue there. Because he had to cut away more on the right he had to decrease the fill of the expander on that side, so I'm a little lopsided now, but that will be remedied over time as the fills are increased. He was supposed to replace the air with saline but I have no idea if that happened – I didn't get to see him after the procedure and DH doesn't remember what he said! (Grrrr!) I'm bandaged and taped up pretty well so I won't be able to see what kind of scarring I'll have until my post op visit on 5/19, but overall I think I'll be able to handle whatever happens. Once again, I'm basically experiencing an overwhelming sense of relief that everything is behind me and I'm really looking forward to getting through the expander phase and onto the final implant exchange.

So, GreyKat, don't give up hope about the necrosis! Things may not be as bleak as they appear right now. Glad to hear you're home; I hope that being in familiar surroundings will enhance the healing process for you.

After much research and worry and prayer and contemplation...I have a prophylactic BMX scheduled for May 25. Because there is a suspicious hard area and bloody nipple discharge, that is not explained in imaging, they are going to do a SNB just in case pathology comes back as more than LCIS.

Such relief!!

Guess who's earned herself a trip to the ER? *ding ding we have a winner*

Woke up having bled through my bandages, the binder, AND the post-surgical drain-holding compression garment - and still wet and dripping down my sides.

So yeah that's not supposed to happen. Got the surgeon paged at 4am and he said off to the ER with me or else if I watch it to see it doesn't turn from a steady drip to a sudden gush or bigger mess, I can hold out a couple hours and come in to his clinic first thing.

It's always something, isn't it? Hematoma is still present, and black nipple is still black. =(

greycat - so sorry you are having so many issues, this is definitely not how things are supposed to go. As far as the black nipple, I just want to warn you that it may continue to be black for quite a while, but that doesn't mean it won't be ok necessarily. I had extensive necrosis for weeks bi-laterally, on the nipples and skin. It eventually scabbed and the black parts flaked off and all was fine. I did use Silvadene cream, Rx from the PS.

angtee - before you leave the hospital double check that you are not having a tape allergy. Your itching is most likely coming from your pain relief meds if it is widespread, but I speak from experience that you don't want a tape allergic reaction to go unnoticed.

Greetings from the half-delusional doped up GreyKat.

Drs cleaned out the drain site and washed off all the crusted blood that had dripped everywhere. Turns out it was a clot inside that was forcing blood out the incisions instead of the drain on that side.

Still so achingly dizzy I can't walk without help. So much nausea haven't been able to eat since Sunday. The anti-nausea meds they've had me on are not working, so they gave me a new scrip for more. Also may end up changing my pain meds and antibiotic bc of nausea. Going to stumble off to bathroom bf throw up in bed. Sorry thanks for all your support ladies i really hurt now again