Home!

Today the x-ray machine was brought to me, I didn’t even have to get out of bed.  Now that’s what I’m talking about!  And the results were good.  Dr Jones came by my room to say my lungs looked better and he was sending me home.  I haven’t had pain when breathing since Friday morning and I know what to look for as a sign I need to return to the hospital plus we only live 10 minutes from the hospital so we were all comfortable with me going home.

I am lucky I didn’t need to get the chest tube although I will say, my train of thought is kind of messed up.   I sort of believe that the bigger the war wounds the worse I must’ve felt so I was ok with having to get the chest tube, if I needed it.  After further research and details from the nurses, I’m quite alright being sent home!

One more night

It seems as though the oxygen is working.  The x-ray this afternoon showed continued improvement when compared to the x-ray from this morning.  They are keeping me over night and will do another x-ay in the morning.  They plan to send me home if the morning x-ray shows more improvement.  If not, they will put the chest tube in and I’ll be here another night.  Regardless, I will be here until Saturday afternoon, at least. 

On the upside, I have a private room (I think most rooms here are private) with two hospital beds, one for me and one for my guest.  Lucky Bobby, this might be better than the Murphy bed at the hospital I had my surgery at. 

Good news first

Good News – the cancer did NOT spread to my lymph nodes!  I realized the night before my appointment that I expected the results to be negative, like I expected the original biopsy to indicate a benign tumor, not cancer.  I said a prayer right then.  Not that God would change his plans because of my prayer but that I was leaving things in His hands and had maybe taken Him for granted by assuming everything would be ok. It’s a good thing I’ve got other people praying for me when I forget to.

I asked  the doctor if radiation was a possibility because my tumor had grown before it was removed. Unless something else comes up the answer is no.  There isn’t anywhere to radiate since my breast tissue was removed and the lymph nodes are negative.  Good News! Good News! Good News!


Not so good news, I woke up at 4:45 Thursday morning with pain in my right side when I would take a breath.  I thought it was related to the tightness of my binder that I was given on Wednesday (the binder is used to keep compression on my stomach now that all my drains are out) so I loosened the binder but it didn’t help.  I mentioned something about it at my post op appointment but we all blew it off.  Besides we received great news, the cancer did not spread to my lymphatic system, so there were better things to think about! 

I went home to rest.  I was pretty tired which stood out to me because lately I feel rested when I wake up.  When I woke up from my nap I was still hurting and the pain was making me cry. I haven’t cried very many times through this whole thing so that was scaring me a little.  I called the doctor and was advised to get checked at the ER to make sure there wasn’t a blood clot.

There is no clot.  However, I do have a Pneumothorax, or punctured lung, and was admitted to the hospital last night.  Where did it come from?  We’re not sure but one thought is it might have happened during surgery.  The doctors were doing all sorts of things inside my body and might’ve nicked my lung.  Why did it take 9 days to show up?  No answer.  How do we fix it?  I’ve had this big oxygen mask on since last night so that I breathe 100% oxygen.  I should’ve never complained about the little nose oxygen things I had last week!  I’d take those any day over this! The oxygen is supposed to somehow help something happen to fix things (aren’t you glad I’m not your doctor explaining things to you???).  If this doesn't work a chest tube will be inserted to extract the air.  I will have my 3^rd xray at 2pm today to see if the oxygen is doing the trick. 

I don’t think there’s a need to worry, I’m being monitored and taken care of.  We just have to  wait to see what’s next and I’ll let you all know as soon as I can .

Eight days Post-Op

I attempted to update everyone on Monday but it was a little hard to type due to the swollen body that lies between me and the computer (I guess?  Really, it was hard to get my arms around my chest without it hurting!)  I’ve been home since Friday and pretty much lying on the couch.  I change directions for excitement and I think our couch is much more comfortable to sleep on than to sit on so it’s not bad.   We borrowed a wheel chair from the church and Bobby pushed me to a parade on Mardi Gras day.  We live at the end of the Metairie parade route so it’s really convenient!

My first post-op appointment was Monday.  The doctors said the incisions all looked good and they removed 3 of my 4 drains. The pathology report wasn’t in yet but we should have it by the end of the week.  I went by the clinic today and had the final drain removed. 

In case you don’t know what drains are, because I didn’t, about 8 inches of tube was inserted into my abdomen and breasts, 4 total, to collect the fluid that fills open spaces in the body.  Outside of my body the tubes (about 18 inches of tube per drain) were connected to these bulb things that the tubes would drain fluid into.  The first night in the hospital the drains were stripped, or emptied, every hour. The second night, every 2 hours, the third night every 4 hours and we’ve stripped them twice a day since I came home (I was very happy to get 3 out at my first post op appt!).  I document the amount of fluid and once the amount is low enough the doctors remove the drains.  It’s pretty gross but also pretty amazing how the body works and how the doctors have everything figured out.  I had no idea how long the tubes were until they said they were taking them out and I didn’t feel a thing. 

I have a post op appointment tomorrow with Dr Jones.  He did the mastectomy part of my surgery and removed the lymph nodes and will hopefully have the pathology report from the lymph node removal.    We are obviously praying for good news and will try to update the blog quickly once we get those results.

Micah and I sit on the couch and watch Mickey Mouse in the mornings now.  Milk, coffee, cherrios and Mickey.  Our mornings might be what I missed most while in the hospital.

Going home today

Well, I couldn’t do it. I couldn’t convince the nurses and doctors that I needed to stay so they’re sending me home.  I suppose it’s a good thing, it means I’m doing well enough to not need their care.  I was just enjoying my comfortable bed and round the clock care! 

 

Post-op

I know most of you received Bobby’s text and/or email that I was out of surgery and we appreciate your texts and emails in response.  Thank you for keeping me in your prayers!

The surgery took about 7 hours and I got to my room around 5pm Tuesday.  The time went by quickly for me, I don’t remember a thing!  But I think it went by a bit slower for Bobby, luckily he was able to take a nap on the Murphy bed in my room.  The nurses checked my vitals every hour the first night.  Last night they checked my vitals every 4 hours and I was able to get some better sleep.  I am pretty sore, mostly in my abdomen right now.  All wires/tubes were disconnected from me Tuesday afternoon and my pain meds are now pills instead of the IV Drip and PCA pump (which I liked because I could give myself more pain meds every 10 minutes!).  Wednesday I moved from my bed to a chair in my room, went on a walk down the hall and another walk down 2 halls to watch a bit of a parade.  Today I’ll get to take a shower and walk around the whole floor.  The doctors said everything went really well and they are pleased with their work.  And all of the nurses and staff here are so nice and caring.

Micah was able to come see me Wednesday evening and while it was hard to not hold him we did have him stand on the bed and I stood up so I could give him a hug.  He loved hiding in all the closets and attempting to hide on shelves.  The shelf thing didn’t go so well.

Oh and good news!  The doctors are 95% sure the cancer did not get into my lymphatic system!!!  We should know for sure at my post-op visit on Monday.  I will be happy to know for sure that it did not spread since we know my tumor was very aggressive.  It actually grew between my ultrasounds on 1/18 and 2/1 so having my surgery so soon was definitely a good thing.

I don’t know when I’ll be discharged but I’m still hoping for Saturday so I can continue being cared for by the nurses.  They seem pretty impressed with my progress though so they might try to send me home on Friday.  We will keep you posted.