Under the Knife

I'm pleased to report that I made it through my surgery today. I had to be there at 10 a.m. and was scheduled for a 12:00 surgery. It's such a long drawn out process. We got there at 10 and breezed through registration. We went to the surgery waiting area and they took me back to get into the hospital gown and get the IV started. They brought Eric back to wait with me until they took me to the pre-op area at 11:20. The only difference was they took my glasses, put me in a bed instead of a chair, and actually hooked up the IV. Surgery was supposed to start at noon, but the doctor was running late, so we didn't start until almost 1 p.m. I had a little TV to watch though, so it wasn't too bad.

Once they took me back to the OR, things got blurry. I remember moving to the table and then at some point they must have started the anesthesia. Next thing I remember was waking up in recovery. After a while they moved me back to the first room I was in and Eric came back to wait with me while I started to get back to normal. They let us leave around 2:45 p.m.

After the surgery, the doctor went to talk to Eric. She said that it went well. She ended up taking some extra fatty tissue from around the tumor, because it was "harder" than she expected. I asked Eric if she meant "more difficult" or "hard/solid." He said it was harder, as in more firm. She said that she wanted to have it tested again and in Eric's opinion she was "slightly" concerned about it. This concerns me a little because in her office she kept telling that cancer is very hard like a rock and she was sort of concerned about the ultrasound. Now, the first biopsy came back benign, so that is encouraging and I'd be surprised if something changed this time, but it's just one more thing to sort of worry about. They got my last results in 2 days, so I'm going to call on Friday to see if they know anything, but the discharge nurse said I'd get the results in about a week.

Anyway, recovery should go as follows. I am to limit activity for the next 48 hours. I have to leave the bandage on for 48 hours and cannot get it wet. I also have an ice pack to have on for 30 minutes then off for 30 minutes while I'm awake for the first 24 hours. After I remove the outer bandage, I will have "steri-strips" that will stay on for 7 to 10 days. I do not have any stitches on the skin level. I have a follow up appointment in the office on October 13. The only other difficult thing is that I can't do any heavy lifting (over 10-15 pounds) for a week.

So far I feel ok. I was nauseous soon after I got home, but ate some soup and took a nap. Now that I'm on painkillers and using my ice pack I feel ok. Eric's been good and took care of Grace this evening. (I promised him a post on how great he's been this week, so I'll work on that one tomorrow.) Tonight I'm going to just watch some TV and hang out on the couch.