Breast Cancer: The solo-preneur and now the day of surgery

The day of surgery is here.

Of to the hospital for an 8:30 AM admission time. I have not eaten or drank anything since late evening. Oh, well, I did have a couple sips of water brushing my teeth. I just can’t brush and not have a touch of water (that almost cost me my surgery-don’t do it). I have three of my friends and my pastor meet us at the hospital for prayer before admission. Admissions was tedious as they hadn’t heard of my plan (new to the marketplace due to the new “Obamacare’ rules). So finally after much ado about nothing it seems, I am sent to the outpatient surgery center on second floor. There starts the day that was never going to end.

Get settled into my bed, all those pre-op questions, and my friends wait in visitors area until I am done.  They also they are waiting on starting an IV, never did find out why. Friends arrive at bedside then off to radiology for needle placement so during surgery they can pinpoint my tumor. In placing the needle, it had to be removed  and placed a longer one that actually defined the complete size of the tumo. And of all the technological developments, to protect the end of the needle from coming out, or me hitting it or  being displaced and such, they tape a small paper cup over the end of the needle….pretty hilarious!

Now it has been about 12 hours since I have eaten or drank ANYTHING, so my veins, being what they are, are starting to collapse. Now they need to get an IV started right away. The pre-op nurse asked if I minded having the new graduate? Well, not really excited about this as I have crappy veins, but I remember I had to learn once upon a time too. He was awful! Grabbed my hand, I thought it was going to break. Then he went in too hard, and couldn’t get placement. I said you need to stop, NOW! So the actual pre-op nurse took over and placed it immediately.

Next, we found out my surgeon was 3 hours behind due to some complications with a current surgery, and there was to be one other surgery before mine. My expected surgery time was 1 PM, I will be getting in a 4 PM. He did come to see me about 1:30 to inject the radiological material for scan of the lymph nodes during surgery. He had said this was going to be the worst. So, as he injected, I kept waiting for pain. Then, he says, okay were done! I said really? Where is all that pain I expected, and was worried me more than anything to happen on the day of surgery. Guess my pain tolerance is pretty good.

Finally, 4 PM comes and they take me to surgery. My little hour to hour and a half expected surgery turned into 3 hours, due to a broken lymph node biopsy machine. They had to send out to another facility to obtain one that worked. In the meantime, they closed that small incision, so they could start the actual lumpectomy. Surgery goes clean to dirty, and as my nodes may be clear, they finished the lumpectomy, had to clean the surgical suite, so the nodes, hopefully clear,  could be removed and analyzed. They were clear! Yahoo! They finished surgery  and sent me to recovery.

In recovery as I began to wake up, they asked if I had any pain, I said yes, my left knee was killing me! They reminded me it was my right breast. I told them that ached a little, but my left knee was still killing me! They gave me dilaudid as ordered for pain. Put me right back to sleep. I never left the hospital until 11:30 that night. What a day!

Stay tuned for the next installment, the first 5 days post op! What you’ll need, what to ask for, and friends that helped!

 

To connect with Linda call her at 310-831-440 or email at Linda@theidentityadvocate.com

 

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