I'm out on the deck, in the gentle sunshine and grateful for so many things. I'm off the hard meds, not experiencing much pain (even though my breast is one giant purple bruise - lovely!) and a little tired but not overly so.
Surgery day went pretty well. As we were walking out the door, the hospital called and said that my surgery time was moved up. Nice, but I was also secretly doubtful how much earlier it would really be. Checked in at 9am, was taken right back to the short stay area, and did all that basic prep work of hospital gown (sort of a breakaway paper thing, with places for warm or cooling packs), IV, answering questions, etc.
They wheel-chaired me down to radiology so they could put in the wire, blue dye and radioactive material. That radiologist also wanted to look at another "spot" to see if they should biopsy it during surgery but after lots of ultrasound time she decided it just wasn't definitive enough to warrant that.
Then off to mammography where they were to get images of exactly where the wire was (right through the tumor). This part was the longest wait and I think a bit of a blip since it seemed like all the other departments were trying to get me to surgery "earlier" but I sat and waited there for 20 minutes. Finally someone came to do the mammogram and then I waited some more.
By the time I got back to short stay, the surgeon had been there already, assuming I'd be there. The nurse gave me final prep, the anesthesiologist came, and the surgeon came back so we could actually talk. Then off to the OR, just a few minutes before what my original time had been. Of course I don't remember much of that room since after I scooted over to the operating table, they gave me the final knockout drugs.
Jon says the operation was pretty close to the expected 90 minutes. When I woke up, I was super dopey, but the nurses were very attentive and I got ice and water - very welcome indeed. Some time there, some time back in short stay, and then home - hooray!
The rest of the evening was mostly dozing, a bit of dinner and dozing and sleeping. Slept on the couch with the cat and pretty much slept through the night. And now, as the title of the post says, I'm taking it easy.
Next step is waiting for the pathology report - either end of this week or early next week. Initial report was that the sentinel nodes are clear, so that's good news; means the cancer hasn't traveled anywhere else.
All for now! Thanks so much for standing with me in this :-)
Surgery day went pretty well. As we were walking out the door, the hospital called and said that my surgery time was moved up. Nice, but I was also secretly doubtful how much earlier it would really be. Checked in at 9am, was taken right back to the short stay area, and did all that basic prep work of hospital gown (sort of a breakaway paper thing, with places for warm or cooling packs), IV, answering questions, etc.
They wheel-chaired me down to radiology so they could put in the wire, blue dye and radioactive material. That radiologist also wanted to look at another "spot" to see if they should biopsy it during surgery but after lots of ultrasound time she decided it just wasn't definitive enough to warrant that.
Then off to mammography where they were to get images of exactly where the wire was (right through the tumor). This part was the longest wait and I think a bit of a blip since it seemed like all the other departments were trying to get me to surgery "earlier" but I sat and waited there for 20 minutes. Finally someone came to do the mammogram and then I waited some more.
By the time I got back to short stay, the surgeon had been there already, assuming I'd be there. The nurse gave me final prep, the anesthesiologist came, and the surgeon came back so we could actually talk. Then off to the OR, just a few minutes before what my original time had been. Of course I don't remember much of that room since after I scooted over to the operating table, they gave me the final knockout drugs.
Jon says the operation was pretty close to the expected 90 minutes. When I woke up, I was super dopey, but the nurses were very attentive and I got ice and water - very welcome indeed. Some time there, some time back in short stay, and then home - hooray!
The rest of the evening was mostly dozing, a bit of dinner and dozing and sleeping. Slept on the couch with the cat and pretty much slept through the night. And now, as the title of the post says, I'm taking it easy.
Next step is waiting for the pathology report - either end of this week or early next week. Initial report was that the sentinel nodes are clear, so that's good news; means the cancer hasn't traveled anywhere else.
All for now! Thanks so much for standing with me in this :-)
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