Surgery Complete

It was a long day but the surgery is complete!  I arrived at MGH Boston at 9am where they took me in and prepped me for surgery.  First they inserted the guide wires.  Definitely not my favorite thing to do.  Basically they compress you in the mammogram machine then poke you with needles to the markers left from the biopsy.  Then they insert the guide wires and pull the needles out.  The wires are taped to your chest and covered in a bandage until you go in for surgery.  That whole process took about 45 minutes.  Once complete we began the waiting game.  My surgery was scheduled for noon but they did not take me in until 4:15pm.  Erik came by and stayed with us for a little while and took Gary to dinner.  I came out of surgery at 7pm, woke up in recovery at 8pm, then they took me to my hospital room at 9pm where I finally got to see Gary and eat (crackers).  Gary had gotten a call from the surgeon telling him the surgery went well.  Coming out of surgery I didn't have much pain, just stiffness and tightness in my underarm plus numbness in my first 3 fingers of my left hand.  The stiffness in my fingers disappeared by the next morning when I was discharged.  The surgeon also removed my port.

I was discharged at 11am and am now resting at home.  On a scale of 1-10, 10 being the highest, my pain is about a 3.  I stopped taking the oxycotin and am just on Tylenol now as needed for pain.  I try not to push it, so will take some before bed or if I'm going to be out a while.  I'm also on an antibiotic, a probiotic (preventative since I had my appendectomy last December), and a laxative for the oxycotin.  Tomorrow I'll be down to just the Tylenol, antibiotic, and probiotic.  

A visiting nurse will come by tomorrow to check my drain.  They put me in a really cool pink front closure sports bra over the bandages and drain site.  The drain bag is latched to a special hook on the bra so it's supported and doesn't dangle.  Definitely designed by a woman.  Twice a day I have to empty the drain by uncapping the top and squeezing it into a measuring cup.  When I get down to 20-30 mL a day I can schedule with the surgeon to have the drain removed.  Tonight I drained 40 mL so I still have a way to go.  I'll admit it was a little creepy at first draining a bag connected to your arm, but the engineer in me got past it.  Right now the fluid is a reddish color, but should turn yellow then white eventually.  While I have the drain I'm not allowed to drive.  In ~1.5 weeks I should be able to get the drain removed.  

As part of my rehab I will start a stretching exercise where I walk my fingers up a wall.  I should be able to go higher each day.  I will not start any real exercises until the drain is removed.  In 48 hrs I can take the bandages off and expose the steri strips.  In ~2 weeks the steri strips will start to peel and I can remove those too.  

At this point I may be cancer free!  I will know for certain when I get my pathology report in ~10 days.  Now that my surgery is complete I can setup my appointment with the radiologist to get in for marking for my upcoming radiation.  As one radiologist told me, up to this point it has been about treating my cancer, now it will be about preventing recurrence.  Excited to have the surgery behind me - two legs of the triathlon down, one to go!

Laughter and fun care package from my co-workers

Ready for discharge from the hospital