Home From Hospital

Well I am home from my surgery. Feeling sore, but so glad to be home. The biggest pain is these drains, I have 4!! They haven't been draining that much so I thought I would get them off fairly quickly. WRONG!! Not til my post op appointment on the 30th!
Thursday (18th) was a tough day. Very emotional. I couldn't seem to keep it together. I took something to help me sleep a little before 9. So luckily I got a good nights sleep. Friday morning we took some pics of the old boobs. We didn't need to be there until 8:30, which means we were here when the girls got up. This was a little hard on me. I was just so freaking out about this surgery! When we got to the hospital, they took us straight back to where they were doing the dye. Very nice man (not sure what his actual title is)that was taking care of us. John got to stay with me for a little while, when things were being explained, then he went back out to the waiting room. Dr. Brockman came in and shot the dye in me. 4 shots per boob! Ouch! Then we had to wait about 20 minutes or so to take the pictures. This procedure was to find the sentinal nodes. This is the first node that any cancer cells would have had to travel to. If they are clean, the cancer has not gotten into the lymph nodes. They find all this out while you are still on the table so they know whether they need to take any more nodes right then. Well the nodes showed up on the pics very clearly-I saw them. Next it was out to the waiting room until prep time at 11. I was doing ok in the waiting room, but once she came back to get me, I started tearing up. Of course we were at the back of the waiting room, so I have to walk past all of these people ready to break down. Once I get into the gown and they get the IV in my hand, they let John come back. By this point I am totally freaking out. Scared to death!! They gave me happy juice twice--I don't think it worked!! Once they started wheeling me towards the OR I was having a real hard time with it. I freaked out until I passed out. Next thing I knew they were trying to wake me up. I do remember the dr saying it all went well and the nodes were clear. He says I gave him the thumbs up sign, I don't remember that.
As they wheeled me into recovery, I noticed it was almost 4. I had thought I would be in my room by 4. I was fighting so hard to wake up and just couldn't. I was also extremely sick!! The dr came in again to check on me and told me again the nodes were clear. I remember hearing him talking to the nurses, not what they were saying, just that there was a conversation. The anesthesia must have won out again, b/c I was in and out of it until about 6. Then we were moving to my room. That ride made me even sicker. They stopped and got the family on the way too. I really didn't want anyone seeing me like that, esp. not the girls. Although my mom says I managed to pull it together for them, and give them a smile and such.
We got into the room and they went to put me on the bed. They put the head of the gurney down--ohh that made me sicker. So they put that back up and transferred me. Then the head of the bed wouldn't go up, so they had to transfer me to the other bed in the room. The plus to all of this was that they didn't put anyone in the room with me b/c they thought the bed was broke!! About 15-20 minutes later, they brought in a broth dinner. The smell of it made me sick! I tried to eat a little, but knew it wasn't going to work. I was out of it a lot that night. Definitely didn't like that feeling. I'm not sure, it might have been about 10 or 11 I started to feel a little more normal. They had me hooked up to a "gatorade" drip, so I wasn't hungry. John stayed with me all night. The nurses made up the other bed for him and practically insisted that he sleep in it. I don't think he laid in it til around 1 though.
I remember the dr telling me he was an early riser--and he wasn't kidding! He was in at 4:30 am to check on me!! He removed the bandages, so I saw the absence of my breasts for the first time. It really didn't bother me. He told me 2 nodes were taken on the right and 1 on the left. All negative. Said that taking just those nodes will not mess up my arms like taking a whole section of them can. There will be no difference. Said if I felt like going home I could as soon as I ate. I was starting to get a little hungry. Breakfast wasn't until 7, and I must have been at the end of the list--it was 7:45 by the time I got mine. Jello has never tasted so good!! We had to wait around til lunch to see if I could handle real food before I could go home. That was a very grisly tough roast beef. So I ate the other stuff!! The nurse came in and showed us how to clean the drains, wash the incision, and give us all the final instructions. And off we went. I was home by 3!! Much nicer to sit in our recliner, watching our big tv!!
Surprisingly I slept pretty good in the recliner. John slept on the couch. He wanted to be out there with me in case I needed something. But, truth be told, I don't think he would have woke up if I did need something (which I didn't). He was out!! Poor guy was so tired. This was stressful on him too. And he only got about 3 hours sleep the night before.

Of course we watched the Bears game! Go Bears!!