Axillary Lymph Node Dissection

Scotty and I were ready to get this surgery under way and, fingers crossed, all the cancer out of my body. We got there on time and got prepped for surgery but much like the night before with the MRI we had a long delay. I was scheduled to go into surgery at 3:25. I actually made it into the operating room and scooted onto the table at 6:35. The approximate operating time was an hour and fifteen minutes but it took closer to three hours. There were not any complications, just needed extra time to be thorough I guess. Seems like the theme for this go round is waiting.

This time I was much calmer as I headed into surgery. Last time I was so scared I couldn’t stop the tears from falling. They eventually had to give me something to calm down. But Tuesdays I was chill. It could be that I am becoming numb to it or that God decided to help me calm down. I think it was a little of both. What helped even more was walking into the pre-op room and having this lady as my nurse!

When I saw Michelle I started to cry but I am so, so, so thankful that she was working that day. It made the waiting fun! Michelle and my kids are on the swim team together and all are around the same ages so we have become buds over the years. She was very sweet and told me that if it was weird she could reassign me to someone else but I think God knew I needed someone back there with me.

Since I was waiting so long I got to have everyone shuffle in and out to see me. If my surgery had started on time then my dad would have missed it because he went to the wrong hospital. Oh vey that man is crazy!

I ended up being the last surgery of the day for the hospital so by the time I was up every one was ready to go home. When I got into the operating room the team was pumped up and saying things like, “let’s get this show on the road so we can go home!” I looked around and said, “hey I know you all want to go home, me too, but see this hat, it’s pink because I have breast cancer and I really need you guys to take your time to get it out because this is not my first time dealing with it.” It might have killed the mood a bit but I know how important this surgery is. The nurses all said they knew that and they were going to take care of me. That was the last thing I remember till I woke up in recovery.

Waking up from the anesthetic this time I was really sick. There was no pain from the surgery but I was certain I was going to vomit. This had not happened in the past surgeries but I also would not put on the patch that is suppose to help with nausea. Last time I had that patch was when my eyes were dilating all funky and I couldn’t see (there is a blog post about it with pictures, not doing that again thank you). Also I had almost nothing to eat in 24 plus hours due to the MRI fasting and the surgery fasting. When we got home I made Scott give me one of my pills for vomiting and it kicked in before I heaved.

The doctor told Scotty and my mom that it went well. He was able to get out the cancerous nodes that were found from the scans and “a bunch more”. Hopefully we got them all. There were a few nerves that had to be damaged to get to them but not any major ones. Now we wait for me to heal and then pray that the radiation and stronger chemo treatments kill any remaining cancer cells this time.

Overall I feel okay. There is pain but it is tolerable. I also have the use of my opposite side which makes this seem like a piece of cake. I was able to give myself a partial shower so I don’t stink to high heaven in 105 degree heat. Also, I have to sleep sitting upright which means I am back to the chair. Seriously not a fan of sleeping in the chair, makes me feel helpless. I also have a drain again but that isn’t so bad because I kept all my mastectomy tank tops.

Yesterday I got back the results from the MRI and it came back clear. The doctors are pretty confident that the cancer is not anywhere else. However, I will continue to get scans now to check.

Scans done, check.

Surgery, check.

Up next radiation. I am awaiting a call from my radiation oncologist to get that appointment setup and learn more.

Now I am going to go nap.