*Very* Long Update on me - 4/28
Apr 28, 2018 14:22:35 GMT
mom22grlz, scraphappy0501, and 68 more like this
Post by elaine on Apr 28, 2018 14:22:35 GMT
This is way too long, so don’t read unless you are bored! 
So, here’s a *very* long update. I can’t believe how tired I have been, so it has taken until this morning to find the energy to write. I’m sorry that this is novel- length; you certainly can skip and/or ignore!
On Sunday, the whole family went out to lunch in Silver Spring, which is close to Bethesda, at a kosher restaurant that makes authentic Israeli falafel - one of my favorite foods. After lunch, the family dropped me off at the Navy Lodge - it is sort of like a Hampton Inn, but on a navy base. I didn’t sleep, but I did lay there with the lights out and eyes closed, playing music on my iPad.
I took the shuttle over to the hospital (Walter Reed) at 6 am, because check in was 0630. They gave me a gown, pants, and a robe - quite the stylish outfit (NOT). At 0715, they wheeled me down to nuclear medicine to inject my left breast with a radioactive isotope so that they could find and take out my sentinel lymph node(s). The woman doing the procedure is a dead ringer for Drew Barrymore. It was eerie. She has to say, yet one more time, “wow, you have dense breasts!” To which I respond, “not for much longer.” She signs my breast - the first of many signatures.
Then it was time to wait. There had been an emergency surgery in the OR scheduled for the breast cases (of which I was #3, the last for the day). I was scheduled to be on the table at 0830, but wasn’t prepped for the next stage until 1130 when it was time for the i.v. to be put in and the nerve blocks. Unfortunately, it was an anesthesiology resident who was tasked with getting my i.v. in. Now, I hadn’t taken anything by mouth since 10 pm the night before - over 12 hours; and was noticeably thirsty/dehydrated and hungry - so I knew getting a vein was going to be a challenge. I swear to you that I would have given over national secrets, it was so painful when he tried to get it in my hand. I was literally yelling in pain - something I never did during contractions before my c-sections. He finally gave up on my hand and found a vein in my forearm- phew! I thought of the peas and our many conversations about blood draws and needle sticks - this was one of those bad examples, but wasn’t unexpected because I was dehydrated.
There is a pic from 2 days later under the spoiler of what my hand looked like:
Then it was finally time for the nerve blocks, which is a newer technique in which they numb the whole nerves leading to the chest, which protects them somewhat from damage and allows them to use less general anesthesia. It involves a series of shots - 6 on each side - of your back. Supervising anesthesiologist was in this time, and kept saying “when you are working on a patient this thin, it is easy to count the ribs and find the right spot for the shot.” I told her that she could keep injecting me as long as she kept telling me I was thin.
My plastic surgery team then made it in to my room, and drew arrows and signed each breast. They looked at me very odd when I told them that I was going to start putting all the signatures up for sale on eBay. I was discovering a penchant for making bad jokes to counter fear, and my doctors and nurses were the unwilling recipients of my humor.
They had had enough of my poor jokes and the OR was finally being cleaned and prepped for me, so they finally started giving me fluids in my I.V. including the amazing relaxing meds. They wheeled me into the OR at around 1230, and I remember looking around and thinking how different it looked from U of M’s ORs and then that was it.
I woke up in Post-op at around 8 pm. I was in the OR until about 7, with a clean-the-OR break between the general surgery for the mastectomies and the plastic surgery.
Fairly soon after I was awake with no nausea- thank you Emend - 3 of my good friends showed up. Dh had had to go home to get younger ds off the bus at 230, and my friends decided that someone had to be there to check on me. So, they told the desk that they were my sisters (LOL!) and they let them back. Military medical facilities tend to be a little more relaxed about situations like this - who is allowed to visit - and both dh and I were thankful. I wasn’t thankful that they insisted on snapping a picture and sending it out to the world, because no one looks better than they do after 6 hours under general anesthesia having their breasts removed and rebuilt.
I was in my inpatient room by 9 pm and able to order soup and a roast beef sandwich for dinner. By that point I was starving! I have to say that one of the most surprising things in this whole experience is how hungry I have been since the surgery - given how little activity I am engaged in - especially for protein.
Walter Reed is a teaching hospital, so rounds in the morning involve lots of docs crammed in the room. And I was on the general surgeon docket- for the mastectomies- and the plastics agenda for the reconstruction. Not to mention the general ward docs and nurses. In that first day, everyone wanted to pull down the bandages and having a look. By Tuesday evening, plastics decided to remove the bandages and put me in a compression bra. So, two young male residents - with a female nurse looking on as a witness- had the unenviable task of getting me into a front zip compression bra. It took them about 20 minutes, working together, to finally get it zipped and shoulder straps attached. I felt like a mannequin in a Monty Python sketch where the Twit of the Year was trying to take off the brassiere.
They would have let me stay through Thursday, but dh wanted me home, so I came home on Wednesday at around 4 pm to my new adjustable bed - it has been a dream to not have to use a recliner for sleeping this week. It is so nice to be able to sleep in an almost sitting position in bed.
The food started pouring in an hour after I arrived home. We have been receiving one full hot meal per day, along with an edible arrangement and chocolates. Today, our Afghani neighbors are bringing over chicken kabobs and rice. My friends have been absolutely amazing.
The biggest challenge has been dealing with the pain. I think it is partially due to the expanders they put in. My plastic surgeon was pleased with how much saline he was able to get in during the surgery. Which means that they are full and it really hurts when I go from laying or sitting to standing and the weight of the expanders shifts down to rest on the bottom where the flap of muscle is sewn down internally. The plastic surgeon is a Navy reservist who does private practice cosmetic surgery in Dallas - he was brought in because 2 of the regular plastic surgeons are deployed right now. It has been a battle with him from the get-go, because I want much smaller breasts than what I had (dense 36DDs) and he either doesn’t believe me or just is placing his aesthetics above mine and wants me close to what I was. He keeps joking with me about how they like everything larger in Texas. (Psssst, I don’t live in Texas). He will be back in Dallas by the end of next week, so whoever replaces the expanders with implants will be another doc. Hopefully the next doc will not have a big boob bias. At least my oncology surgeon - a woman - totally gets it and says that I should stick to my guns and demand smaller breasts. As it is, with just the expanders filled during surgery, I am at least a C cup, maybe D. When we are done, my breasts need to be smaller - dh would have been fine if I had decided on no reconstruction and to just go flat.
The good news is that they were able to get the sentinel lymph nodes out and the tumor was obvious, once they were removing tissue. We will find out what the pathology reports find next week and plan the next phase from there. I go back to plastics on Monday and hopefully will have 1 of the drains removed. Plastics told me that I could go ahead and shower (the nurse who had told me otherwise was wrong), and so yesterday I took my first shower. I almost didn’t come back out, it felt so good. I also have quite a bit of use of my arms - especially compared to what some of the peas have reported. I think that the nerve blocks really helped. I can open pill bottles, the refrigerator, and even wash my hair as long as I bend my head as forward as I can. Again, I am very fortunate.
So, the big picture takeaway is that I am a truly blessed and fortunate person. My medical care has been excellent, my dh loves and supports me no matter what my chest looks like, and my friends have given me and my family so much. I couldn’t ask for better friends. My goal for the rest of the year is to take time daily to appreciate all that I have been given and to be sure to thank people and let them know how wonderful they are.
So, here’s a *very* long update. I can’t believe how tired I have been, so it has taken until this morning to find the energy to write. I’m sorry that this is novel- length; you certainly can skip and/or ignore!
On Sunday, the whole family went out to lunch in Silver Spring, which is close to Bethesda, at a kosher restaurant that makes authentic Israeli falafel - one of my favorite foods. After lunch, the family dropped me off at the Navy Lodge - it is sort of like a Hampton Inn, but on a navy base. I didn’t sleep, but I did lay there with the lights out and eyes closed, playing music on my iPad.
I took the shuttle over to the hospital (Walter Reed) at 6 am, because check in was 0630. They gave me a gown, pants, and a robe - quite the stylish outfit (NOT). At 0715, they wheeled me down to nuclear medicine to inject my left breast with a radioactive isotope so that they could find and take out my sentinel lymph node(s). The woman doing the procedure is a dead ringer for Drew Barrymore. It was eerie. She has to say, yet one more time, “wow, you have dense breasts!” To which I respond, “not for much longer.” She signs my breast - the first of many signatures.
Then it was time to wait. There had been an emergency surgery in the OR scheduled for the breast cases (of which I was #3, the last for the day). I was scheduled to be on the table at 0830, but wasn’t prepped for the next stage until 1130 when it was time for the i.v. to be put in and the nerve blocks. Unfortunately, it was an anesthesiology resident who was tasked with getting my i.v. in. Now, I hadn’t taken anything by mouth since 10 pm the night before - over 12 hours; and was noticeably thirsty/dehydrated and hungry - so I knew getting a vein was going to be a challenge. I swear to you that I would have given over national secrets, it was so painful when he tried to get it in my hand. I was literally yelling in pain - something I never did during contractions before my c-sections. He finally gave up on my hand and found a vein in my forearm- phew! I thought of the peas and our many conversations about blood draws and needle sticks - this was one of those bad examples, but wasn’t unexpected because I was dehydrated.
There is a pic from 2 days later under the spoiler of what my hand looked like:
Then it was finally time for the nerve blocks, which is a newer technique in which they numb the whole nerves leading to the chest, which protects them somewhat from damage and allows them to use less general anesthesia. It involves a series of shots - 6 on each side - of your back. Supervising anesthesiologist was in this time, and kept saying “when you are working on a patient this thin, it is easy to count the ribs and find the right spot for the shot.” I told her that she could keep injecting me as long as she kept telling me I was thin.
My plastic surgery team then made it in to my room, and drew arrows and signed each breast. They looked at me very odd when I told them that I was going to start putting all the signatures up for sale on eBay. I was discovering a penchant for making bad jokes to counter fear, and my doctors and nurses were the unwilling recipients of my humor.
They had had enough of my poor jokes and the OR was finally being cleaned and prepped for me, so they finally started giving me fluids in my I.V. including the amazing relaxing meds. They wheeled me into the OR at around 1230, and I remember looking around and thinking how different it looked from U of M’s ORs and then that was it.
I woke up in Post-op at around 8 pm. I was in the OR until about 7, with a clean-the-OR break between the general surgery for the mastectomies and the plastic surgery.
Fairly soon after I was awake with no nausea- thank you Emend - 3 of my good friends showed up. Dh had had to go home to get younger ds off the bus at 230, and my friends decided that someone had to be there to check on me. So, they told the desk that they were my sisters (LOL!) and they let them back. Military medical facilities tend to be a little more relaxed about situations like this - who is allowed to visit - and both dh and I were thankful. I wasn’t thankful that they insisted on snapping a picture and sending it out to the world, because no one looks better than they do after 6 hours under general anesthesia having their breasts removed and rebuilt.
I was in my inpatient room by 9 pm and able to order soup and a roast beef sandwich for dinner. By that point I was starving! I have to say that one of the most surprising things in this whole experience is how hungry I have been since the surgery - given how little activity I am engaged in - especially for protein.
Walter Reed is a teaching hospital, so rounds in the morning involve lots of docs crammed in the room. And I was on the general surgeon docket- for the mastectomies- and the plastics agenda for the reconstruction. Not to mention the general ward docs and nurses. In that first day, everyone wanted to pull down the bandages and having a look. By Tuesday evening, plastics decided to remove the bandages and put me in a compression bra. So, two young male residents - with a female nurse looking on as a witness- had the unenviable task of getting me into a front zip compression bra. It took them about 20 minutes, working together, to finally get it zipped and shoulder straps attached. I felt like a mannequin in a Monty Python sketch where the Twit of the Year was trying to take off the brassiere.
They would have let me stay through Thursday, but dh wanted me home, so I came home on Wednesday at around 4 pm to my new adjustable bed - it has been a dream to not have to use a recliner for sleeping this week. It is so nice to be able to sleep in an almost sitting position in bed.
The food started pouring in an hour after I arrived home. We have been receiving one full hot meal per day, along with an edible arrangement and chocolates. Today, our Afghani neighbors are bringing over chicken kabobs and rice. My friends have been absolutely amazing.
The biggest challenge has been dealing with the pain. I think it is partially due to the expanders they put in. My plastic surgeon was pleased with how much saline he was able to get in during the surgery. Which means that they are full and it really hurts when I go from laying or sitting to standing and the weight of the expanders shifts down to rest on the bottom where the flap of muscle is sewn down internally. The plastic surgeon is a Navy reservist who does private practice cosmetic surgery in Dallas - he was brought in because 2 of the regular plastic surgeons are deployed right now. It has been a battle with him from the get-go, because I want much smaller breasts than what I had (dense 36DDs) and he either doesn’t believe me or just is placing his aesthetics above mine and wants me close to what I was. He keeps joking with me about how they like everything larger in Texas. (Psssst, I don’t live in Texas). He will be back in Dallas by the end of next week, so whoever replaces the expanders with implants will be another doc. Hopefully the next doc will not have a big boob bias. At least my oncology surgeon - a woman - totally gets it and says that I should stick to my guns and demand smaller breasts. As it is, with just the expanders filled during surgery, I am at least a C cup, maybe D. When we are done, my breasts need to be smaller - dh would have been fine if I had decided on no reconstruction and to just go flat.
The good news is that they were able to get the sentinel lymph nodes out and the tumor was obvious, once they were removing tissue. We will find out what the pathology reports find next week and plan the next phase from there. I go back to plastics on Monday and hopefully will have 1 of the drains removed. Plastics told me that I could go ahead and shower (the nurse who had told me otherwise was wrong), and so yesterday I took my first shower. I almost didn’t come back out, it felt so good. I also have quite a bit of use of my arms - especially compared to what some of the peas have reported. I think that the nerve blocks really helped. I can open pill bottles, the refrigerator, and even wash my hair as long as I bend my head as forward as I can. Again, I am very fortunate.
So, the big picture takeaway is that I am a truly blessed and fortunate person. My medical care has been excellent, my dh loves and supports me no matter what my chest looks like, and my friends have given me and my family so much. I couldn’t ask for better friends. My goal for the rest of the year is to take time daily to appreciate all that I have been given and to be sure to thank people and let them know how wonderful they are.
