The Masectomy

June 16 Monday - went to Kathy Woodhouse for more details on the what will happen around the time of the operation. The Delta Hotel chain offers breast cancer patients a night post op at the hotel free of charge. Its is called "Delta Oasis Program". Delta Brunswick Hotel in Saint John offers out of town patients a free hotel room as they should stay very close to the hospital for 24 hours after a mastectomy/ lumpectomy. It includes a free room for 2, dinner and breakfast for 2,and  valet parking. Extra Mural nurses(registered nurses that come to your home or out of hospital location for patient care) come and visit the next morning before you can be released.The discussion of the drain tube and pump occurred- gross! This freaked me out more than the operation! How much fluid needs to be in there, the chart I had to write down the amounts, how much Extra Mural would be coming to clean around the wounds etc. You end up with a large cut on your chest, a few inches cut under your arm to do  the sentinel lymph node biopsy  and a round cut on your side where the chest drain goes in through your ribs into the chest close to the sternum.You have many Nodes under your arms near your armpit I think as  many as 50. As few as 1-6 nodes are the first to receive drainage from your the area where your breast tumour is.

After my appointment with Kathy, I went to see Andrea, the physiotherapist. When you get a breast cut off your chest many nerves are taken with it and maybe muscle. This all effects you shoulder and arm movement after surgery. If you do not move your arm and exercise it you can get a frozen shoulder.At this appointment you are given a compression bra.

You need access at the front for bandage changing/wound cleaning and it is very binding. This is to help keep swelling down. When you get lymph nodes removed the lymphatic fluid has to reorganise its self because flow is interrupted. You have to be very careful not to get cuts or burns on this arm because of the risk of infection. " When lymph nodes are removed, lymph vessels that carry fluid from the arm to the rest of the body are also removed because they route through and are wrapped around the nodes. Removing lymph nodes and vessels changes the flow of lymph fluid in that side of the upper body. This makes it harder for fluid in the chest, breast, and arm to flow out of these areas. If the remaining lymph vessels cannot drain enough fluid from these areas, the excess fluid builds up and causes swelling, or lymphedema" See pic below- there is no cure for this once it happens. Sometimes you will see women wearing compression wraps on there arms to try to reduce the swelling.

My Mastectomy is booked for Thursday June 19th, Dean arrived home the day before. Everyone was relieved to be home together again, even though I was exhausted from so many appointments and Dean from so much travel and work. This kids went to one of my close friend and neighbour overnight and had a full day of activities to do.

Every step is just one thing you concentrate on and pray for. You cannot think to far ahead. Just get through the next step and consider it a victory. Mine was to get through the pre-op wait, then the operation, then to get out of the hospital to the hotel and then home.  

My appointment started at 12 noon. You get a pre-admission work up, blood work, It takes one hour for the surgery, a few hours post anaesthesia. .They check the sentinel nodes and do a biopsy and decide if a few are clear or if many have to be taken out because they find cancer there. Waiting is very hard. You have to focus on other things and not your fear, as you don't really know what will happen once they run the tests and open up your breast. I tried to focus on nature, trees, the wind, rivers. Finally I got into the actual surgery room. I remembering laying down, there was a bunch of nurses and my surgeon Dr.Scarth. They put 2 needles through my breast to place radioactive fluid into my chest so the doc can trace it to see where the fluid goes to check for cancer with a radioactive detector- it hurt so much- I don't understand why they don't do that after you go to sleep! They put the IV in and then put a mask on your face.After you are under, they inject blue die into your breast so that it will be easier to see your sentinel nodes during surgery.

The mask was  the last thing I remember. I woke up on the 3rd floor in recovery. The nurse said to me that Dr.Scarth wanted to make sure I knew that my nodes were clear of cancer. After a while I remember Scarth coming in smiling face telling me the same thing and that surgery went well and my iron was low so I was going to be extra tired. I remember they asked me if I was hungry and I said yes. A nurse named Brenda made me toast, I was so high I was eating it like I hadn't eaten in years and I said "this is the best toast I have ever had in my life!"as I stuffed it into my mouth lol! 

Before you can be let go they have to take you for a walk, check your vitals etc. The whole time I was walking around the ward I saw stars floating around my head- I felt light headed but my body felt heavy. I tried to fake feeling great. I got the clear to leave. Dean went ahead to get the truck, and the nurse took me to outside the hospital lobby. By the time we went down the elevator and the wobble hallways, I was truly ready to puke! So puke I did in the garbage can outside. Knowing this potential I couldn't believe the nurse did not carry barf bucket, bag or tissue paper. It was dark out and raining. Finally we were on our way to the Delta, but first we had to do pick up my pain killers, the hospital doesn't give you them to take with you. So we had to find a pharmacy, that was open. Ugh!!