March 2017 Surgery

Not one person tried to help me. Oh my gosh.

tlj. . .welcome. Happy Belated Birthday and you're in good company here. This is a journey for all of us and we just have to take it one step at a time.

Bg46TN. . .welcome and congrats on final chemo. Please ask any questions you may have about preparing for surgery, although it sounds like you have a good week to get things ready. I suggest a total body pillow or dorm backrest pillow to help prop you up after. I used both and if you have a wifi tablet or can get one before, they are great. Still using mine on my to keep busy on this go round.

2FUN probiotics are great. I take a large dose of them and thinking about switching to the live ones but they are expensve.

Bluebird. . .I n have surgical glue on my incisions with waterproof strips overthem. PS said the strip will come off when they are ready to and not to worry. I do enjoy my showers. Miss my baths which I am banned from until at least May but I will be back in the pool by then.

Jada, please ask your questions here. I'm sure you'll find great support from our surgery sisters.

LAW and Raven good to here all went well.

Sjsparks . . . hang in there and try to focus on one thing at a time today. As already said, anesthesia is a great thing. I never remember anything. If you have any nausea trouble let your anesthesiologist know before. I do and they give me IV meds.

Yvonne -YEAH.

Sitti. . .I was able to use gentle electric shaver once stiches from SNB dissokved. It was probably that long before I could get arm up anyway.

I slept in this today, more than 12 hours so anesthesia is still making me exhausted. I have finally been able to taper down my meds and finished my ABx. Will try to catch up on the flurry of posts since last night.

On the bright side and fingers crossed, it appears that my PS did a fantastic job selecting the implants for my redo. I really like the positioning, projection and shape. Fingers crossed that it's not just swelling that will go down. PS assured me that was not the case. Lol

Scottie

Sjsparks, if you have a port, make sure your BS orders your fluids, IV, everything be given through that. It has to be ordered, or they won't do it. No sense in sticking veins if you have a port. And you can to the lidocaine over port yourself before you leave for the hospital. Most of my pre op verbiage was done over the phone. I did go in for a blood donation, taken bya dingbat who left me bruised and battered. How come the only people who know how to draw blood are the phlebotomists at my cancer center?

Hi! I would love to mention each and everyone of you but the list is soooo long. So many strong, wonderful and supportive ladies and gents. I was discharged from the hospital on monday. They weren't going to release me cause my heart rate jumps up too high. (140+) when the pain hits. They brought in a cardiac doctor to exam me, gave an ekg. Doctor seems to think same thing as pain medication wears off before next dose is due heart rate goes up. Dr ordered dilaudid before being released and heart rate went back down. Cardiac doctor said heart rate increase during pain was confirmed, cause on thursday they turned my epidural off after 7 hours pain hit suddenly and heart rate jumped to 150. Every dr and nurse came into my room. They turned my epidural back on and within 20 minutes heart rate was back down. I also have a plurel effusion after 2nd chest drain was removed. Had 4 chest xrays on Thursday. Xrays showed several small effusions. Had chest xray every morning upto and including day of release. Xrays show it getting smaller. I had a rough day monday after release from hospital. Had a lot of pain until about 3am. I couldn't lay down and sleep. I ended up sleeping in twin bed sitting up in corner with lots of pillows behind me. Still in a lot of pain but it is more manageable today. Dr has me on oxycodone 15mg every 3 hours and gabepentine 300mg 3 times a day and baby asprin. Slept alot today.

To all who have had surgery i wish you well and a speedy recovery. To those who have just joined I wish you the best. I'm praying for all of you. To the newbies welcome so glad you found us but sorry for the reason. There are alot on knowledgeable, supportive people on this site.

Love, prayers and hugs to all!

DIV, glad you posted, and I am glad u r home. Hopefully you have less and less pain every day.

Bellasmom mom, I am glad u r home too!

I don't think my short term memory is very good-sometimes these posts are hard to remember everyone! Hugs to all

I just got home from my lumpectomy and sentinel node biopsy and I'm doing well. They removed three additional lymph nodes and my pain is manageable. The radioactive tracer injection and wire insertion wasn't bad at all.

I hope everyone else's surgery goes well.

Ki

Found out today that rather than IDC I had ILC with ductal features. Was quite a surprise. ER+/PR+, HER2-. Oncologist ordered an oncotype test, and a CT. Saw the breast surgeon today, and he said if the MO suggests chemo, to call him first.

Still have 2 drains putting out a lot of fluid. PS flushed today with an antibiotic, gave me a Bactrim Rx, and I go back Friday to have the drains removed. He said three weeks is as long as he'll leave them in since I have tissue expanders.

Lynn

DiV. . .glad to hear that you are home and hope you are more comfortable tonight. Hang in there. Prayers for pain relief and rest.

BellasMomToo and kimelliott glad to hear that all went well. Hope you are also resting comfortably.

Apparently, I keep over doing things. I'm not doing much but really hoping I can make it to ds's science fair for an hour tomorrow. I'll stay in bed the rest of the day.

Good night all

Scottie

Thanks everyone for the tips to help with back pain as well as the info on deodorant and shaving.

Jada, are you okay?

Gardner4 - Thinking about you as you go into surgery tomorrow. Update when you can.

Continued wishes for healing and recoveries for everyone.

I'm home! Got home last night, but was too out of it to post. None of it was as bad as I thought it would be. I'm sore today, but not too bad.

plantchild, are your TEs under or over the chest wall muscle? I think that may make a difference in how they feel. Mine are pre-pectoral and they do feel a little full but mostly they just feel "heavy". And, sorry, but don't you actually have fluid in them? I have saline in mine. I remember when my left one was only partially full and I was kind of trotting up the stairs from the basement one day and heard this "sloshy" sound and kind of stopped and thought "what the heck was that noise" and then I realized - it was MY FOOB! LOL!!

OMG, 2FUN, are you kidding?? Not weird! I cannot WAIT to be able to take a shower!!! Hopefully this $#@^# drain will come out tomorrow and I'll be "free"!

Irwells50, I'm so jealous that your PS has a three-week limit on the drains. Mine, sadly, does not - he's perfectly happy to leave them in there as long as necessary which is completely annoying to me. It always kind of boggles my mind how different PSs have such totally different opinions/practices on the same thing.

Hey ladies:

I drove for the first time since surgery!

wallan

Thanks for the info Raven. Friend of my posted this on FB. . .it's so me.

Scottie

I haven't had a fill yet. Not until 4/11 due to infection which seems like really clearing. I'm not looking forward to it. My pecs are just going to be "mad" until this process is over. It's not unbearable but ain't comfortable either. I don't think I was a candidate for pre-pec (if that means in front) because it can place pressure on the skin if you do skin sparing mast., which I did. More chance of necrosis. Unless I misunderstood what they said!