Monday Recision

I'm scheduled for the recision surgery on Monday, September 17, which is easy for me to remember, as it's my parents' anniversary. (Happy Anniversary, Mom & Dad!) ;-)

I'll check in at the hospital at 9:30 and surgery is scheduled for 11:30. Assuming everything goes well (and remember, we have no nasty lymph nodes to deal with this time around), I should be done by 3 p.m. and then home around 4 or 5 p.m.

Meanwhile, the MUGA this morning was pretty boring. Frank and I showed up at Alta Bates hospital, where we checked in at Nuclear Medicine. I got shot up with some radioactive isotopes and then waited for about 15 minutes for them to circulate through my bloodstream. Then I was put on a narrow bed and had 3 leads put on me for the heart rate monitor. I had to put my left arm up over my head and the kindly nurse, Mark, strapped my right arm around me, so I'd stay nice and still. He positioned the circular scanning device over me and it slowly moved around my heart for 20+ minutes.

Frank asked if he could talk to me and Mark said, "yes, just don't make her laugh." So, at one point, Frank starts to tell me how he's going to prepare the Smithfield ham he just acquired.

Frank: I'm going to cook it the Alton Brown way.
Karen: And what way would that be?
Frank: Well, you braise it in Mr. Pibb.
Karen: Mr. Pibb?
Frank: Yeah, and sweet pickle juice.
Karen: You're not supposed to make me laugh, remember?
Frank: That wasn't supposed to be funny.
Karen: Sweet pickle juice?
Frank: Oh, okay. ......Iraq.

You gotta love him.

Surgery? Check.

To everyone who has been sending the positive energy and kind thoughts and words (and flowers and chocolates and tea and housecleaning and, the list just goes on and on....) thank you. We have felt your love most sincerely and we most sincerely appreciate it.

I got discharged a bit late today--it seems that my surgeon was assigned another case today and I'm thinking he assumed someone else from his office would see to my discharge, but, no such luck. So, after figuring I'd get to leave the lovely Summit hospital around 11 this morning, I actually got to walk out the doors around 4:30 p.m.

And sleep last night? Sheesh. You need sleep to heal, but heaven knows that the hospital is not the place to get sleep. Between being awakened to have my blood pressure checked every 4 hours, and my IV bag going empty and beeping at 3 a.m. and, well, oy vey, I got about 5 hours sleep last night. I'm sooooooo looking forward to sleeping in my own bed tonight.

For the very brave of heart, there is clinical pre-op info down below, but don't feel compelled to read this. I only put it here for the gluttons for punishment (like myself).

I'll be checking in with my oncologist on Tuesday and the surgeon on Friday. The surgeon will need to put in a port for the chemo, but I'm sure that happens a bit closer to chemo, which will likely start in about 4 weeks (after we take Em off to Santa Barbara).

So, there won't really be much news until next week, and so we'll have a bit of a lull in these updates. Thank you again, so very very much, to everyone.

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Here be the icky clinicial stuff........

So, we arrived at the Breast Health Center at the Summit "campus" and first up were the "wires". Guided by ultrasound, the very nice doctor (Dr. Kanter is an opera fan, so he and I had a very nice discussion and he heartily recommends I take in the Seattle Opera's ring cycle), inserted wires on either side of the so-called mass, to guide the surgeon. The wire insertion was preceded by local anesthetic, so it didn't hurt. But he had to wiggle the needle inside the breast to see it on the ultrasound, and I was a teensy bit concerned that the lidocaine would wear off before I got the general anesthesia for surgery. (It didn't <whew>)

Then off for a mammogram that showed the wires.

I had to get in a wheelchair and then in an ambulance to be taken the whole 4 blocks to the hospital. Arrived there around 9:30, got checked in to Same Day Surgery, and then wheeled down to Nuclear Medicine. Probably the worst part. They need to shoot isotopes into the breast to "highlight" the sentinel lymph node(s). Which means a needle under the nipple. This, too, was preceded by local anesthetic. But still? Something I'd prefer to avoid in the future.

Loaded with wires and isotopes, I was wheeled back to Same Day Surgery, where I met the kindly anesthesiologist, who checked to make sure I had no allergies, blah, blah, blah. I got wheeled over to surgery, they put something dopey into the IV and then put the mask over my face. I remember thinking, "oh, the mask is over my face" and then I woke up in recovery.

I felt fine until the nurse told me I would not be returning to Same Day Surgery, but would be spending the night because I knew that meant they found something in the lymph nodes. Damn, damn, and double damn.

I'm not experiencing much pain and I've been good about moving the left arm. I have a drain from the surgical wound, and will need to empty it for about 4 days. But all in all, this is not all that bad. Certainly easier than chemo will be. More on that after we get the pathology report and have my doctor's appointments next week.