Surgery…

Well I am out of surgery and home now.

We got there at about 11:20 because they wanted me to come in early. Sadly there was an emergency and I got pushed back to my old time slot. So I waited in an area that had a TV that came out of the wall like a light at the dentist office (trying to come up with a device that most people would know here). It was cool! I also had a window and there was a curtain separating my little area from about 3 others. I had 3 walls though and no one else did. I wasn’t on a gurney in the traditional sense of the word. It was a gurney but it allowed me to sit up like it was a chair. It had arm rests and as I later found out it also converted into a bed. I honestly wish all gurneys were like that! I was in this spot for about 2.5 hours. I watched people come and go in this time. I also heard people conversing loudly. Max and Tony waited in the waiting area and took a couple of walks so they were not with me during this time.

Finally it was my time to get surgery. I went into the room, saw all these monitors and such. I then sat on the operating table and had my head in a surgery pillow. I then got hooked up to a heart monitor, blood pressure cuff, and had compression socks put on me (yuck!). Then they told me to take some deep breaths while they put an oxygen mask on me. Next thing I knew they were talking about moving me and when I opened my eyes I was in an area that looked a lot like the area I was in for 2.5 hours but the view was different.

I got a bit queezy at this point and got rid of my stomach contents. They then gave me something for this and told me to go to sleep if I felt like it. Next thing I knew Tony and Max were coming in. I was given apple juice and graham crackers. I drank what I could and felt like I was drifting from being awake and asleep. They insisted that I use the restroom before I went home so I waited a bit till I felt like I was more awake then asleep. Then I used the restroom. The moving around wasn’t good though and it made me nauseas again and the apple juice didn’t stay in me. After that I felt better. A little while after that I felt better and got dressed and was wheeled out to the van and went home. By this point it was 8 pm, and I was the last person to go home.

Last night I didn’t feel that bad, however I was still in that half awake and half asleep state. I stayed up till 10 pm then went to bed. I slept well but my pain meds wore off and moving in bed was a bit painful. However I didn’t want to take my pain pills on an empty stomach so I waited till this morning to take them.

This morning I woke up and ate a bit of food and took a pain pill. I am still a bit sore but I think that is to be expected. Other then that I am doing well.

My doctor did come out and show Tony some pictures of what she saw in the surgery. She was able to remove some of the tissue left over from the chemo. Tony said it looked black and shriveled. He could also see the space that it used to be in and it was a lot larger. This black mass was sent to the lab to be tested. Hopefully the results of that will be known tomorrow when I see the radiation oncologist.

That is all I know for now. I will try to post tomorrow after my next appointment.
Jennifer