I checked in to the hospital at 6:30 this morning, and was ushered in to the prep area. Shortly after I was dressed in the hospital's finest rear-opening gown, I was wheeled down to radiology where they would take some "pictures" and insert a guide wire so that the surgeon could easily find the chip that had been inserted into the tumor when I had had my sentinel node biopsy. That sounds so innocuous, doesn't it? Holy smoke! To do this procedure , they lay you down on a table that has a hole in it so you can place the breast with tumor in it. The challenge came when they discovered that the clip/(former)tumor was close to my chest. To get a good picture, they had to play tug-of-war (they won) with the aforementioned breast and shoulder, then squish said breast with mammogram-like plates. It took them 3x as long as usual to get the pictures they needed. Then the radiologist numbed the spot (they need to work on the effectiveness of numbing swab) and inserted a wire just slightly thinner than angel hair pasta. The wire protruded from my body and the surgeon could then follow the wire (like a bread crumb trail) to where the clip/tumor was.
It was all downhill coast from there. Anesthesia is a wonderful thing. I was out before they wheeled me into surgery. When I woke up, I felt pretty well, got my walking papers, and went home. Steve drove up today for support--(thanks, Steve), and will stay the night with us.
I have a little drain that collects fluid from the incision. That's probably the most annoying part of this. But otherwise, no problemo.
1 comment:
I am so glad everything went smoothly. One more hurdle down! I'll keep praying for an easy, speedy recovery :)
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