More Details on Lymph Node Surgery

Thank you all for your comments and well wishes from my last post. I'll do the best I can on the details, but I didn't get to talk to the doctor personally, so here's what I know from Eric and my parents.

I'll start with Tuesday. I had an appointment at 8:00 a.m. for my MRI of the brain. I got there a few minutes late, but it worked out ok. The test took until about 9:00 a.m. and I again had to be injected with a contrast agent. I realized I'm getting a little tired of all these needles, so maybe the port isn't such a bad idea. Dr. Y had said my MUGA scan wasn't until 11, but the MRI department told me to head up to Nuclear Medicine right afterwards. I headed up there and the nurse told me she had someone in the room I would need that would be there until at least 10 a.m. That worked out nicely for me, because I hadn't picked up my FMLA paperwork yet. I walked across the street to Dr. L's office to get it. Then I stopped at the cafeteria to get a bagel. In the cafeteria, I returned a call to the Short Term Disability firm and tried to call the hosptial pre-registration office. Then I went back to the registration office. They took me back at around 10:30 and put in an IV. Then they took a couple of vials of blood to "tag" with radioactive markers. They sent me back to the waiting room for about a half an hour. Then they took me back to the room, reinjected the blood and then took two pictures of my heart that took about 10 minutes each. Once I finished the tests, I was wiped out. I went home and took about a 30 minute nap before my parents arrived. Once they got there we did some errands. We tried to find another wig store, but ended up going back to the one we looked at previously. We bought my wig. It actually looks really natural and alot like my normal hair. After that we picked up Grace's 9 month pictures, picked up Grace, and got groceries for the rest of the week.

Wednesday morning I had to be at the hospital by 8. We got up at 6, got Grace ready for daycare and also got her clothes and food for dinner in case Eric couldn't pick her up from daycare. Eric left at 6:50 to take her to daycare. I got my shower in and threw together a couple of things in case I needed to spend the night. We quickly breezed through general registration and then headed up to the surgery registration. We ended up waiting in that waiting room for about 30 minutes while they were taking other patients back.

When they came to get me, I had to change into my robe and give a urine sample (to be sure I wasn't pregnant). Then they started my IV and took lots of blood to run a whole variety of tests. Then the Breast Health Nurse that deals with cancer patients came by to see me. She seems really cool. After that Eric and my parents came back to wait with me in the pre-surgery area. I did see another name on the "board" that had Dr. L's name beside it and she was scheduled for surgery at 10. I thought I might be going late, because they didn't take her back to pre-op until 9:45 a.m.

Just before 10 they took me back to Nuclear Medicine. I was in the same room as my MUGA scan. They wiped me down with an alcohol swab and iodine and then the radiologist gave me an injection of some kind of radioactive isotope. He told me it would not feel good, but it wasn't too bad. Unfortunately, they can't numb that area well, so they just injected it just above my nipple. The dye burned as it went in, but then was ok and I went back to my chair to wait. Around 10:30 they came to get me for pre-op and I said goodbye to Eric, Mom, and Dad. Last time I had to wait for over an hour in pre-op, so I expected the same. This time, however, it went very fast. The anestesiologist came to see me before they even started the IV fluids. Then Dr. L came while he was still there. She drew a new line on me for my re-excision and then made some marks to guide the port. Then the anestesia doctor came back and gave me the drug to "relax" me. Then they took me to the OR. All I remember from the OR was moving to the table and them putting a gas mask on me.

When I woke up, I spent a long time in the recovery room. I just couldn't keep my eyes open. Luckily they let me nap as much as I wanted to. I was very sore too, so then they would give me more pain medicine and then I had to wait another 30 minutes each time. There were also a couple of times that I felt very nauseous. They waived something under my nose and also gave me some powerful antinausea drugs. I think I remember them asking if I wanted to stay overnight, but I wasn't really coherent. I did ask them at some point if I was going to get to go home and they said yes. I asked them if that meant that they didn't find any cancer, but the nurses couldn't tell me anything. I also got this very cute and furry teddy bear that was from Dr. L.

Once I was finally a little less out of it, they took me back to the pre-op chair area and everyone came to see me. I sat there for a while until we finally got dressed and I came home. I made it home around 6 p.m.

After the surgery, Dr. L came out to speak to Eric and my parents. The main thing that she told them was that my lymph nodes were clear. She removed 5 nodes. She said that I will probably be very sore, because apparently they were tangled up with nerves and blood vessels and she had to move stuff around to get to them. They will send them off to pathology and we'll have the final report in about a week. However, they said she was very excited and positive, so I think we're in the clear. I guess they also asked about the pathologists. They said that they just recruited a new pathologist from Baylor university and that they are now using my case for quality control/research. Apparently my case is very unique, so they want to see how they could have found this sooner or what would have happened if had done things differently, etc.

On Friday last week, I got a call from Dr. L's office about my CT results. Apparently, the CT scan showed a "very tiny" spot on my right lung. I wasn't sure what that meant, so they asked her about it. She said that they tend to see that alot on people from the midwest. It may be some kind of calcification or something. Her suggestion would be to do another scan in 3 to 4 months. Her hope is that it will still be there and be the same size. She doesn't want to see it disappear with chemo. She isn't concerned, especially considering that there wasn't anything in my lymph nodes.

About my port. She said that I'll probably be very sore from that too. They usually put it between your collarbone and top rib. However, mine must be very close together. Dr. L said that they kept hitting a bone when they tried to put it in. Apparently they got it though. Somehow, the fact that Dr. Y wants to start chemo next week came up. Dr. L was concerned about starting before I am fully healed. She may be having a conversation with Dr. Y about it. She's afraid that I'll get infected if we start early. I guess we'll find out tomorrow.

That's all I can remember. I'm much sorer than last time, so I can definately see recovery taking longer. They gave me a special bra to keep everything stable, but I feel very stiff. Both sides hurt because the port is on the left and my incisions are on the right. I have a lifting restriction for 10 days to 2 weeks, can't remove the dressing for 48 hours. Have special arm stretching exercises to do twice per day and had bright blue urine for 24 hours. Luckily, my Mom's been doing most of the house work. Grace hasn't been too bad for me yet. With everyone else here, she has been getting plenty of attention. I miss her though.

Ok, that's all for now. I'll update tomorrow after our oncology appointment.