A Treat for Halloween 2011

On Halloween (oh, the irony!), I went in for my first post-op with the plastic surgeon. Joshua, mom, and Sandy also came. It was a rough ride there; the nausea set in quickly and I focused on breathing deeply and getting fresh air. Ick - really dislike that feeling. We will be visiting the plastic surgeon's office weekly for at least 6-8 weeks for follow-ups and fills. On this particular day, I learned that I'd get both of my pain med intake tubes out and my lymph drain tube out. Yay!

The PA (Jill, a wonderful gal with an evilish laugh that I both love and fear) had me breath in and out slowly and deeply to help me focus on something other than the long tubes getting taken out of my body.

First up: the pain med intake tubes:

Not a biggie. They were small in diameter.
Pretty long, though (~9in, methinks).

Then the lymph drain tube came out. The other one you see here was left in to drain the right breast area:

Bigger tube = a bit more uncomfort when coming out.
The lymph tube pulled out was ~7-8in long.

Here's all the stuff that came off or out of me that first visit:

Caveat for the literals reading this: not the tweezers, scissors, or gauze!

There was much to rejoice about after this first pre-op: my healing post-surgery was on track, I had three less tubes in me, and we all dressed up a little for the holiday. Also, the nausea from the car ride up there had worn off. So we all decided to go celebrate!

At WaterCourse - a vegetarian restaurant.

The Drain Game

Ugh. Drains. They're not fun. Still, they aren't half as bad as some women would have you believe. They get in the way and are cumbersome when pulling pants on/off and when bathing (waist-down only allowed at this point).

Technically, I had three drains. One for my left breast area, one for my right breast area, and one for my right lymph area. I also had two intake tubes for a local anesthetic - one to the right and one to the left breast area. Here's what it all looked like:

Yes, that is a fanny pack.
Yes, I'm exposing parts of my body I'd like to keep hidden,
but this is for informational purposes, so what the heck.

I am not a fan of fanny packs in any way (even though my friend Chana claims they're handy) - except for this surgery! We hung the three drain grenades from the fanny pack with safety pins, which made getting up/down and moving around much easier. Another trick: you can also stick grenades into the inner pockets of jackets if you want to conceal them well when going out.

The picture below shows one of the drains at the insertion site - below and slightly "behind" the breast area. The drain is kept in place by a few sutures, the round sticky pad you see in the picture, and clear tape around the whole area. The point is to NOT have the drain move AT ALL. I'm fortunate: mine behaved well. 

If you're thinking drains are nice and automagic - think again! While they do work via suction to get all the blood, healing juices, flesh bits (yes - more on that later), and other goo out, they do need help. Joshua and mom did a great job stripping the drains. I preferred to sit back and enjoy the view while they did the work.

Several times a day, the grenades needed to be emptied and contents measured accurately. Once each drain produced </= 30cc of fluid a day, it was given a green light to come on out.

The grenade fluid lineup. Sexy, ain't it?

The Mystery Snowblower

Me snowblowing last year.
Won't be doing any of that this year!

The other day, Joshua left for an early appointment. It was snowing when he left. Mom soon came over to help me bathe and get dressed - it was still snowing then. Getting me "ready" in the morning is quite a lengthy process so we close the bathroom door and turn on the space heater to help us be more comfortable.

Thanks to an unidentified neighbor, when mom and I left for an appointment a while later, the ENTIRE driveway, sidewalks, and patio had been cleared! We're talking at least 6-8" of snow removal! I'm still not sure who did it, but thank you so much for the help.

Step Into the Time Machine

Can't seem to help myself. I've been itching to say hello on the blog again. Hi all! I'm recovering well (as far as I'm aware) from surgery and am headed into week 2 post-surgery soon. Feels good to have THAT behind me. For now, I'm going to rely on pictures to get ideas and experiences across. If I say something that doesn't make sense or omit information that you're curious about, please ask.

*A slight hint that some might find these and future pictures to be gross. But hey, I'm not showing you the grossest stuff - just the reality of what I'm going through. I'm finding a lot of this medical stuff interesting and want to share my experience and knowledge with others.

Joshua came to my bedside first - boy, was I glad to see him!

The two nights at the hospital were...challenging. General anesthesia is difficult for me to recover from. And while morphine helped with the pain I was feeling immediately after surgery, it presented more problems than help: I couldn't keep any food or liquid down. And though I tried with all my might on day 2 in the hospital to use the commode next to my bed, it just wasn't going to happen. (And that little bit of movement away from bed got me sick again, too.) So that evening, after an ultrasound confirmed how full my bladder was, I had the wonderful experience of being catheterized for the first time. Not bad, really. And a relief to know that something was headed in the right direction - out!

At the end of day 2 at the hospital, I went on a little walk down the hallway. My legs were shaky and I didn't quite like the feeling of moving, but it was mandatory to do that before being discharged, so I wanted to make that happen. Joshua, dad, and Miyako were there to see that happen. The picture below shows what I had to walk around with - lots of attachments. These were in/on me when I woke up from surgery and they came home with me, too.

I had three drain "grenades" and a big On-Q local pain med ball.
The nurses emptied the grenades every few hours, as they filled up quickly!

On day 3, I was discharged since I could walk, go to the bathroom, and keep food down. Happy day! I was wheeled out to the car and got to behold awesome sights all the way home since it had snowed ~6in the day before. Our power was out and wasn't going to be back on for another day or more so we stayed at mom's house for a night.

One of the daily tasks I am privileged to do is breathe slowly and deeply in and out of this "Airlife" thing to get my lung capacity back to normal.

My lung capacity has increased since I first did this in the hospital.
Small steps, but it's a positive!

Pathology Report

Here is the information we received post surgery in the pathology report.

• the main tumor and its sattelite friends/offshoots in the breast tissue were removed with clear margins


16 level one lymph nodes were taken from the right side
• active cancer cells were found in the breast tissue and one lymph node
  
• Laura's chemotherapy regimen reduced >90% of the large tumor mass

Keeping things light.
(t-shirt from http://freakyts.com)

We were hoping for what is called a "complete response". This is where all the cancer cells would have been shown to be inactive. An incomplete response is less desirable based on cure rate statistics.

We are beginning to look into clinical trials based on recommendations from Laura's oncologist. This will likely involve another round of chemo. We anticipate meeting with a representative from a clinical trial here to find out more information and to weigh the risks and benefits.

Radiation is still on the horizon.

Presently, Laura is focused on rest and healing - doctor's orders! Her spirits are positive and the recovery from surgery is on track and going well. She has a good appetite and has progressed to taking short trips out of the house when her energy is up, although she is completely exhausted afterwards.

More on what we learn about future treatment plans soon.

Fascinating Fuzz

My head hair regrowth is beginning! It's like a light halo around my head. Not enough to insulate well at all, but enough to notice and want to shout out to the world: look at me - my hair is growing!

See the fuzz? Forget the dark hairs you see.
That's some of my old hair that's being stubborn.
It falls out as the new growth pushes it out.
It also comes out when I pull it out, rub my head, or 3M roller my scalp.

An extremely close view of my scalp and the wild, wirey fuzz.
Proud to own my fuzz.

Home Sweet Home

Just had to let you all know that we are rejoicing because Laura got to come home yesterday. She began eating again and was able to drop the morphine and move on to oral painkillers. We packed her up and scooted her (gently) into the car on a day that was cold to say the least. Because of the winter storm, they had no power, so we all "nested" at my house, and Laura amazed us with her energy level throughout the rest of the day. Fortunately, power was returned and Joshua and Laura were able to return to their own home today -- ready to continue the healing and recovery process. Please continue your thoughts and prayers as Laura heals and becomes stronger in Phase 2 of her journey.

Slowly but Surely

A quick update on Laura's progress: Joshua spent the night with Laura in the hospital and reported that they had a sleepless night mostly because of Laura's nausea, so this factor has slowed her recovery. Through great effort she finally kept down a small bit of food and some of her bodily functions are returning -yea! Her pretty blue eyes are much more alert and she is sharing her sweet nature with the hospital staff.
When both surgeons visited Laura today, they were confident that the procedures were successful and that a positive pathology report is expected (by Thursday or Friday). We continue to pray that the report will confirm that there are NO live cancer cells !
The winter storm that rolled into Denver last night ended up much less severe than was forecast, so we have been able to get to the hospital easily. However, Laura & Joshua lost electricity late this afternoon so it is probably a good thing that Laura isn't quite ready to go home. But she has eaten again, and is off the morphine, so things are looking up ! Tomorrow Laura will probably get to go home !

Update from the hospital!

We just received wonderful news that Laura is now in recovery. Both the general and plastic surgeon's said everything went well. She will be in recovery for a couple of hours before we can see her. The expanders are in place and Laura was given 150 cc's of saline to get the stretching started. We are anxiously awaiting to see her early this evening amd hoping that the anesthethia does not cause too much nausea. Big sighs of relief and thank you to all of you who have been praying for us today.

Letting Go

The magical time has arrived. We're soon heading to the hospital. Joshua and/or my parents will be posting blog updates on how I'm doing post-surgery. Any comments you leave will get to me. I'll hop back online when I feel up to it.

Much like the sparklers in this picture,
my breasts will soon be things of the past.

Next time you see me, it'll be version 1.2 of Laura; one step on the way of becoming v2.0. Also, Phase 2 of Operation Kick the Crap out of Cancer will be over! (At least that's how I'm thinking of it.)

This transition is a tough one to wrap my head around; I imagine I'll be working through these feelings for some time to come. My breasts have mainly, until recently, been just another appendage on my body. Since June, I've had time to think about them, notice them, recognize changes in them, celebrate them, and say goodbye to them. I would love to keep them...if they weren't trying to kill me. Bad boobies! <sigh> It's come down to having to let them go.

I am ready for today. I am confident in my general surgeon's abilities. I am confident in my plastic surgeon's abilities. I know the anesthesiologist is well-versed in administering drugs to patients like me. I know there are many prayers being said for this surgery. I have the strength. Everything will work out as it should.