Today: the Mastectomy/Lymphectomy

After I wrote the last blog, last nite, Christine, my fairy godfriend, dropped by with beer and a big, big Holt Renfrew box. It was soft, ice-pink pajamas! Sooooo sweet! What an angel is Chris. We hung out and I said "more than anything else, I wish we were curled up in your media living room watching MI5!"

So off we went! We picked up the antimicrobial soap the hospital told me to pick up. Tersaseptic. I was told to have a bath the nite before the surgery, and one again, the morning of the surgery.

Having a bath in Chris and Mike's gorgeous, skylited bathroom twice was a pleasure! What a beautiful home they have designed and made. True to her words, "Nora, you should get whatever you want tonight," Mike and Chris let me choose what we watched, and I missed Mike's "oh, cancer-girl gets her way again!" comments. Instead it was all "whatever your heart desires, honey." Soooo cozy and soooo wonderful.

At 6:50 a.m. Elizabeth picked me up and off we went. Beautiful weather, but my nerves were terrible today, and I think I hurt her feelings about her driving skills! Stupid me! Nervous wreck, me!

I thought Dave would be home, and here I am, home since 3:30, no note, don't know where he is.

It turns out the surgery was scheduled for two hours and forty five mins. The anaesthesiologist gave me an epidural along the vertebrae of the Thoracic part of my spine (upper spine)...at each of t1, t2,  t3,  t4,  t5, and  t6. Highly recommended. Means, in addition to the general anaesthetic, i had these epidurals so the pain won't kick in until midnite, apparently. No mind. I have Percocet pills and Advils to stuff on from then on, every four hours. A little weed to supplement, probably? TMI?

The surgeon, Dr. Lorimer, told Eliza who was waiting in the waiting room, that I was "extremely cooperative" and he has great hopes for me, despite the fact the cancer was "very advanced" when I found it. He removed three cancerous lymph nodes and the breast with its three cancerous tumours. With aggressive chemo and radiation, he feels I have a good chance, "although one never can tell with this disease as you know," he added.

He added, "tell her she has gall stones, by the way. She should get those removed." 

Guess what the senior resident told me...there were no junior residents on the team and the Surgeon (lorimer) himself sewed me up!

I was out, fully dressed, in bra, blouse and slacks, by 1:30. I fought hard to keep my pulse above 90 bpm in the recovery room, and not to fall back to sleep so I could get home as soon as possible. We did Harvey's drive thru, and I am now home in bed, ready to really sleep!!

As Andrew Faiz, Freya's hubby said, "Cancer, Shmancer."