surgery day June 1st
Ok surgery is done. I'm home now. I'm going to start with my day yesterday.
Yesterday Ryan and I got to the hospital at 6:45 am. They brought me to a pre-op room. I had to pee in a cup to make sure I wasn't pregnant. 😆 I got in my gown and waited for everyone to come in and talk to me. The plastic surgeon came in first. I was asking him about sizing and skin stretching. He had me stand up and he drew a little map on my chest of where the incision would be on both breasts. The left breast incision is under the breast and the right is in the middle of my breast kind of where the tumor was. He wrote "IN" on my port so they didn't take that out. He asked me about my left nipple. He said, "If we can't save the nipple on the right, do you want us to save the nipple on the left or take it off." I hadn't really thought about that. I was like, um I don't know. The pre-op nurse said, "Take it off, you want to match." So he wrote on the left side, "remove nipple to match." He had me read a bunch of information and sign a consent form. Dr. Tittensor came in and looked at the map on my chest. She asked which side we were removing lymph nodes on and wrote "yes" on my right side so they knew.
My pre-op nurse tried to get my IV a couple of times. She tried my hand, it blew. She tried my forearm, it blew. And then the CRNA came in and placed it in my AC (elbow). While they were doing my IV the anesthesiologist came in to have me sign a consent form. He was sitting there talking to me as they were poking me. I was like, "Dude I can't focus on what you're saying right now, because I'm being poked." I didn't say that, I was just thinking it. I should've asked him to wait a minute. He was telling me that they'd put a pain block right above my chest. The CRNA then gave me some versed, which was super nice. I fell asleep before we even got to the OR. I remember with my port that they gave me some versed but I remember going into the OR, getting on the OR table and THEN I was out. This time I went in the OR hallway, turned a corner and next thing I know I was waking up in PACU (post op).
Okay so I said something really funny to the PACU nurse. Utah Valley Hospital has these delicious cream cheese cookies. I was really hoping that American Fork had them too. So as I'm coming out of anesthesia I said, "I have a funny question. Do you guys have the cream cheese cookies that Utah Valley has?" HAHAHA I don't even know if she answered me. HAHA
Apparently anesthesia makes me cry. I got to my room and I couldn't stop crying. And Ryan told me something that made me cry. I was sitting there crying happy tears though. I told him, "These are happy tears." So the surgeon injects some blue dye into my.....I don't know, my lymph nodes? Or my lymphatic system? I don't know but the dye goes to my lymph nodes and if they're suspicious they light up. Now I'm trying to remember all this stuff and I may get it a little wrong but this is the best I remember and can explain it.
Back in December I had a lymph node biopsy that came back positive for cancer and they put a clip in it to mark it. Ideally the chemo would kill the cancer in that lymph node. Well that lymph node turned blue and one other one turned blue. They took those out and checked them under the microscope and they were clean- no cancer!!! So they didn't have to take any more lymph nodes out. My lymph nodes are cancer free!! They also checked the tissue behind my right nipple and it was cancer free as well so I was able to keep both of my nipples. I was looking down at my chest and I was so happy to see that both of my nipples were still there. I couldn't stop crying. I was so happy and I couldn't believe that there was no cancer in my lymph nodes and my nipple.
We still have to wait on the pathology of my breast tissue. Dr. Tittensor said she did an ultrasound on the breast cavity and it all looked clean. She didn't see anything or feel anything but of course we are looking for microscopic cancer cells so we have to get the pathology report back to make sure the cancer is all gone. It all looks good though. I am so happy. I could cry again. I don't think I have to do any more chemo. If everything comes back cancer free I don't have to add on a chemo drug to the Herceptin that I get every three weeks. YAY!!!
So that blue dye that they put in turns my urine blue, then green. It's pretty funny. Dr. Tittensor said it can also cause a blue tint on your skin. My right nipple and breast were a little blue after surgery but it had faded by yesterday evening.
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