What a difference a day makes...

I was exhausted all day yesterday, breathing was tight, chest was sore. Today, I'm feeling pretty good.

James took the pressure bandage (covering chest tube wound) off last night and I took my first shower although I had to sit through most of it feeling pretty light headed but am now clean. I had a good nights sleep last night only waking up once needing pain meds. I'm feeling like I'm finally recovering from surgery. Then, I'll be able to concentrate on fighting the cancer again. They've scheduled me to see the Medical Oncologist on Nov 14th so must think I'll be ready to move on by then. She's the one I'll discuss chemo and hormone therapy with. I still haven't heard back with lab results on the lumpectomy margins (whether they'd removed enough tissue surrounding the tumor to keep the remaining margins free of cancer.)

I thought I'd give a rundown of what I remember of the surgical events on Friday. If I'd just gone ahead with the lumpectomy and sentinel node biopsy I'd be doing great right now. The nodes were negative, the lumpectomy is healing nicely, the surgeon had moved a bit of fat from my back through the single incision site to fill the void left by the mass which has also helped with healing. I guess that if they don't do this it could fill with fluid which could cause problems.

But, I'd asked about a portacath because I am a "difficult stick" in that when I give blood or need injections they have problems. With chemo looming over me I thought it might be a good idea to do this while I was in surgery. The surgeon agreed saying it's a common procedure with 1% risk of "dropping a lung" but I'd be in the hospital so this could be taken care of. I don't think she was talking about internal bleeding...

James was with me from 7:30 AM arrival at the hospital through 11:30 AM move to surgery. I went under anesthesia, woke in recovery, was told that the surgery went well and the nodes were negative. They were checking my vitals and noticed that I was complaining of pain breathing on the left side. They curtained my space off, called in many more doctors, residents, nurses, etc for consult. X-ray showed that my left lung was fluid filled by half when sitting up and fully when laying down. They moved me to an interventional radiology unit. A new surgeon was called in and after more x-rays, consults, and a stent being inserted up through my it was decided that the first portacath which was placed badly could be safely removed and a new one inserted. From there I was moved to the surgical ICU unit. They watched me, took more x-rays, found that now both seated and laying x-rays showed fluid filled lung. But, they decided that the fluid (blood) wasn't in the lung rather in the space surrounding the lung. It was getting increasingly difficult/more painful to breath on the left side. They made the decision to insert a chest tube for drainage around 11 PM, I'd been out of surgery since about 2:00-2:30 PM. The chest tube insertion was incredibly painful but I felt an immediate release of pressure from around my lung. I was told that I lost about a liter of blood onto the bed and just under another liter of blood went into the vacuum pump attaced to the unit. At some point they gave me blood since I'd lost so much.

James was in the waiting area of the hospital from 11:30 on. When I first came out of surgery he was told that I'd be able to go home from recovery. Then he was updated that I'd be kept overnight, there was a complication. My surgeon called him to say that they may have inadvertently placed the portacath in an artery instead of a vein. Then he heard nothing. He went to see if I'd been moved to the room # he'd been given. He returned to the surgical waiting area. He wasn't allowed to see me and wasn't kept informed about my complications or location. I understand that we are all human and make mistakes but do not understand why they couldn't have allowed him to see me for 5 minutes, keep someone with him, checking in with him, updating him... crazy. He seemed to remain uninformed throughout. He called my sister to take over for him when he thought his anger might interfere and my sister kept him updated from ICU. I'm impressed that he could curb his anger under these circumstances and that he could make the rational decision to remove himself from a volitile situation. He knew that Linda would be a good advocate.

I'll update on the rest of my hospital stay another day, this entry is getting rather long. Although, I do have to say that the ICU staff, and surgical recovery floor staff, nurses, residents, patient care attendents, were all wonderful.

Off to nap... Beth