Filling in the blanks...very long

I have found when speaking to people that there are lots of blanks left in the surgery story since there was a scare that put everything else on hold, so I thought I'd fill in the blanks to fill in the blanks. I 'll just start from the beginning...

When I went in for surgery Monday morning, I was given an IV, visited with each doctor plus their physician assistants and interns. I also had visitors and calls from all over Oklahoma and Texas. I felt loved and cared for, believe me... The surgeon who performed the mastectomy went to a breast cancer seminar the weekend before and learned about a lymph node mapping system that would dye the nodes that belonged to the arm so that just the breast nodes would be taken, and that would give me a MUCH less chance of developing a nasty condition called lymphedema. I was rolled into the OR just after noon and was finally given the "happy juice" that I was promised that would relax any anxiety I had. I remember friendly eyes looking behind surgery masks from all over the OR, and then I went to la-la land. The surgeries went great. I was told the surgeries would take up to five hours, but things went so smoothly, I was out of the OR in 3 1/2 hours. The hysterectomy was first. There was a surprise cyst on my ovary about the size of a grapefruit with lots of scarring on the ovary. That explains a lot from my teen and adult years. The mastectomy was next and the expander was placed in last. I woke up in recovery feeling pretty good. I remember trying to focus on the time, and the kind nurse with me told me how smoothly everything went. I remember noticing my chest was bound tightly and it was hard to breathe, but I didn't feel too bad...

When I was wheeled to my room, it is reported that I made a few phone calls, but I don't remember any of them. I do remember Chris laughing at me while he asked for a dictation for my blog, and was told I was acting like a drunk college student. After a while, I felt a lot of pressure on my abdomen and wanted to go to the bathroom. I was told that I couldn't feel that way since I had a catheter, but looking at the catheter showed nothing. I had several nurses try different sizes of catheters...but nothing would come out of the bladder. Calls started going to the surgeon...and she had some of the doctors come from the emergency room to take a look at me...still nothing. I was given shots, given new caths, took the cath out and sat on the toilet...nothing. Finally at 3:30 AM, the surgeon came in and sent me to the ICU. Meanwhile, I was given a lot of drugs because I in lots of pain. A kidney specialist was called in, and I was given new catheters in my groin area to have dialysis. My potassium levels were at very high levels, and the next concern would be a heart attack. During the next day, I was in and out of consciousness while various tests were being run, and no one could figure out why my kidneys weren't giving the bladder anything to empty. I remember a sonogram being done since the tech had to press against my new incisions and then my sides to look at the kidneys. I think by the evening when an OR was open, I was taken back into surgery to take a physical look at what was going on. I remember Dr. C giving me 3 options...and the first one she said was correct.

I remember being wheeled into the OR, and even making a joke or two with the friendly eyes behind the masks. They told me they were going into the previous incisions to fix me, and I gave them my full confidence before the "happy juice" sent me back to la-la land. I lost a lot of blood, and it was hard to see what was wrong, but the freak of the problem is that when I had my hysterectomy, the leftover organs have to be sutured back to the abdominal walls and given a place. One of the sutures made the muscle against my ureters swelled and made the lines between the kidneys and bladder kink up like a cheap water hose. Stints were placed, and the lines were open immediately. (yippie!) The bad news is that I lost some blood and would have to be given a couple of pints of blood to help the healing process along.

My knowledge of blood comes from MASH, and I just thought I could give them my type and get a couple of units in my body in an hour. This wasn't so. Blood transfusions have to be cross-typed in many different ways, and it takes hours for a transfusion to go in. Someone has to constantly be with the one getting a transfusion constantly because there is a chance of an allergic reaction to the foreign body. It takes hours for each little unit to go in, but it is for a reason. I remember my dad (who NEVER likes to sleep away from his own bed) somewhere about 3:30 in the morning. One of his best friends drove him from Amarillo, and I think then I realized the seriousness of what just happened. Drugs or no drugs. I think I got a little sleep, but I must have been feeling better, because I was pointing the finger with the heart rate monitor that turns the finger red at everybody croaking "BEEEE GOOOOOOD" ala ET (Extra Terrestrial, not Entertainment Tonight). I thought I was pretty darn funny, but I think I was the only one.

Things were going very well, so I was moved to a room. I was very disappointed to hear that I would be spending a few extra days in the hospital due to the second operation, but was more disappointed to hear that I wouldn't get any more pain shots and had to ask for pills from then on. The shots were SO nice with the instant pain relief.

The rest is recorded, but I'll do a quick note on the pathology reports:
...NO live cancer found in the breast tissue
...NO cancer PERIOD found in the the lymph nodes
...no problems found besides the cyst on the hysterectomy parts

GOD IS GREAT!!!!