Surgery and beyond...

Sorry for the delay! This week has been spent slowing acclimating myself to typing. I started checking my work email on Monday and quickly overdid it. Who knew that typing put so much strain on your chest muscles?

Before I chronicle the past two weeks, I have to thank everyone for all the well wishes, cards, flowers, food and help. I've been saying this since last September, but I can't tell you how much I appreciate everything, and am totally flummoxed. I can't figure out what I've done to deserve such an outpouring of support from so many wonderful people! I will do my best to thank everyone by name (a nerve-wracking task, since I'm sure I'll miss someone) in my next post dedicated to my Hero's.

So here we go:

Thursday Feb 3
It was an early morning, as Cory and I had to be to the UW Surgery Pavilion by 6:30. Lucky for me, I was not allowed to wear any lotion or make up, and without hair, getting ready was easy. Unlucky for Cory was that I also could not eat or drink anything. The lack of caffeine coupled with slight nerves made for a crabby Amber. One minute I snapped at her and sent her away, only to then realize that I wasn't going to be allowed back to the waiting room, so I had a nurse fetch her so she could keep tabs on where I was. Sorry Cork. I wasn't thinking straight.

Prior to surgery I had to have my lymph nodes mapped. Cory and I were shuffled to another part of the hospital. This was a pretty simple procedure where radioactive contrast dye was injected into a very sensitive part of my right breast. After a wait of 45 minutes photos were taken and a geiger counter-type of device was used to identify the sentinal nodes and mark their position on my skin. This was for a biopsy during surgery. The sentinal nodes would then be sent to a lab with my breast tissue to determine whether my cancer had metastasized or not.

After mapping, and winding my way back to where I started, it was on to pre-op where I met up with Kevin and Cory. I received the lovely gown that I'd wear for the next 2 days, the exact nature of my surgery was recounted over and over.

(Sidebar for those who aren't entirely sure what I had done: Bilateral skin sparring mastectomy with tissue expanders installed)

Then there was the insertion of the IV. I hate needles to begin with, especially IVs. After 4 attempts to thread it, I finally asked if they could use my port (which was going to be removed during the procedure). The anesthesiologist agreed and decided to start the IV after I was out so not to torture me. Apparently it's not uncommon for chemo patients to have what he called "spastic veins".

I can't go into much detail from here on out. After a short discussion about the lovely shade of nail polish I was wearing and what I do for a living, I remember saying that I'll be a sleep any second. Then I remember being wheeled to my room with Dad in tow. By the time we got to my room Cory, Kevin, Sue and Mariah were already there. Then I told everyone to stop talking. Obviously I was still crabby!

At this point it was all about the pain.

I have an intolerance to opiate-based pain meds. So early on (and from my standpoint things are hazy) I wasn't given much for the pain. I recall spending the majority of the day only on Tylenol. Not fun. It wasn't until my surgeon came by to see me later in the evening that he mentioned that my nurse thought a muscle relaxer would help and he set my mind at ease on trying oxycodone. He promised that they'd manage the vomiting with anti-emetics. I agreed and the nurses spent all night and half of the next day trying to break through my pain and get me on a good path.

That first night was pretty bad, my nurse checked on my constantly = no sleep, but managed to miraculously get me out of bed to the bathroom. Wow, that was not fun. That first nurse, Cara and the woman who relieved her, Maureen, were awesome. They really got things under control. That is until Challie (pronounced Shelly) took over. She managed to single handedly screw everything up, which forced me to spend a second night in the hospital.

Saturday February 5
Kevin arrived at 7 am to help Cory get me to the car and into the house. Cork was a little late (she went grocery shopping for me first). But it didn't matter, the doctor's didn't come by until nearly 10:00. At this point I was doing really well again, on a good med schedule and ready to get out of there. With Cory's help I'd gotten dressed, had shoes on, eaten, and removed a strange adhesive thing that Kevin noticed behind my ear.

By noon, I was in a wheel chair and on my way out.

No sooner had we reached the lobby and the vomiting started. What the hell? Two nights in hospital and nothing. We left anyway. It was a very painful ride home. More yelling and snapping at Cory for driving too fast over bumps.

Home at last. Cory with Kevin's help, got me settled on the couch, propped with pillows. And more throwing up. No more oxy. Hello pain.

Monday, February 7
Remember that adhesive thing that I removed from behind my ear? Yeah. Well that was a super strong, prescription-strength anti-emetic that was put on during surgery. THAT is why I didn't get sick in the hospital. The minute it came off, the oxycodone did exactly what I feared. It made me sick. Upon calling the surgery advice line, Cory lucked out and got one of the residents who was present during my procedure. The first thing she asked was if I still had the patch behind my ear. Aha! A prescription was called in, a run to the drugstore, and all was restored, pain dulled. Until....

Tuesday February 8
A lovely rash appears on my stomach. This is cause for my doctor's to immediately take me off of the oxy. Here we go again. The resident called in a new script for me, but after picking it up, Cory opted to not give it to me as it was another opiate.

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It's now 15 days post surgery, I've been hanging in there with a heavy dose of Tylenol and the muscle relaxer. Things are definitely better every day and in contrast to last week...leaps and bounds better!

Cory stayed with me for the first week and had the toughest job. Not only did she have to wait on me, keep on top of my meds, but she also had to change dressings and clean the drains I had installed. She really had her hands full and did an excellent job with a super cranky sister as a patient. I am so thankful she was up for the challenge.

Erika relieved Cory one week after my surgery. She and Kevin took me to the first check up where I got the drains removed and found out that my lymph nodes are clear of cancer (which means no radiation!). They did find one 1.6 cm active tumor in my right breast, but that is significantly reduced from what I started with. All indications point to having a good response to chemo, and with wide clear margins from surgery, I'm well on my way to being cancer free.

Erika stayed with me from Thursday the 10th until Sunday when my mom took her turn to take care of me for a few days, and Erika is now back again until this Sunday.

This past Tuesday I had a check up with the plastic surgeon. My incisions are healing really nicely...she was amazed at how fast I heal and even more amazed that I've been recovering without narcotic pain meds. To be honest, it hasn't been easy, but compared to that first night, it's been a breeze.

Moving forward, I have my first expansion on March 4, then every other Friday until April 15. The plastic surgeon assured me that expansions are way easier than what I'm going through now. It'll feel like I just worked out too hard. That was a relief to hear. I was starting to wish I'd been born flatter chested so I wouldn't have to go through this!

At any time I can decide that I'm big enough and stop. Or on April 15 if I'm not happy we can continue. Once I'm satisfied I have another surgery to swap the hard plastic expanders for nice soft implants. The remainder of the summer will be punctuated with smaller procedures and I should be done by August/September.

On the medical side of things, I have an appointment with my oncologist to start laying out my maintenance schedule. It will include a pill everyday for 5 years and, to start, blood tests every 3 months.

More fun to come, I'm sure!