Cancer Journey - Bilateral Mastectomy Surgery

While I was going through Chemo, I had to make the decision on what type of surgery I wanted.

Choices include: lumpectomy, mastectomy, or bi-lateral mastectomy.

For me lumpectomy was not an option since the tumor was large and it had already spread to my lymph nodes. I decided on a bilateral mastectomy due to the suspicious spots.  I didn't want to worry every time a mammogram showed a suspicious spot.

I had a wonderful surgery coordinator, through my doctors office.  She scheduled the hospital time and stay, the surgeon, the plastic surgeon, the anesthesiologist, and the all the prescriptions that I would need.

I got to the hospital early and got checked in, I had to be there at 6:30 AM in the morning.  My mom took my son to daycare, and my dad took me to the hospital.  The nurses took me back to the prep room to get me ready for the 8:30 AM surgery.  The surgery is to take approximately 4-5 hours for the surgeon to remove the breast tissue, and the plastic surgeon to come in and insert the expanders and sew me up.

My dad was given a beeper that would let him know when the doctors wanted to talk to him, or let him know of my status as I finished surgery, recovery, and was heading to a room.

I was nervous as I really had no clue what to expect.  I met with many people that morning, and then the nurse came in to start the IV.  The anesthesiologist came in to talk to me.  Just before they started rolling me into the surgery room, he injected something in my IV to help me relax.  When we got to the surgery room he asked if I could still feel and hear and seemed surprised when I said I could.  But within 10 seconds everything went dark.

As terrifying as being "put under" is, I have to admit I like not knowing what all happens during the surgery, and waking up when they are done.  I woke up in a recovery area, and this time felt like I had been hit by a car.  I couldn't move my arms, I was numb in so many areas, and there just seemed to be a huge weight on my chest.  After I came to enough, I was ready to move onto my hospital room.

It was scheduled for me to spend one night in the hospital, and then I had to show them I could eat, drink and walk a little bit before being released.  I am not sure what happened, but I either had a very bad reaction to the pain medications, or I was very over-medicated.  I ended up spending 3 nights in the hospital, and I slept most of it and don't remember much.

I do remember a few things.  My parents came back the next morning and tried to cheer me up with a donut (which I threw up).  One of the nights I had to go to the bathroom and for some reason thought I could do it myself, but instead of hitting the call button, I hit the TV button, and ended up on the floor of my room, in my own pee and puke [thank god for heavy pain meds then, as I am sure I would have been mortified to be found that way].  I ended up spraining a finger, and getting a nasty bruise on my leg from that fall.

My poor husband [Mr. Breeze], just started a new job, so he would come visit me at night.  Unfortunately he too tried to get me to eat, and I just kept throwing it up.

On day three my parents were getting worried, as I was not eating (I couldn't move my arms enough to feed myself, and I couldn't stay awake long enough to concentrate on eating).  My mom tried to feed me a bite of chicken sandwich, apparently I feel asleep so she and dad left to get themselves lunch.  When they got back, they woke me up, and I remember showing them that I still had that same bite of chicken sandwich in my mouth an hour later (gross).   Luckily as that point, the pain medication ball that was inserted through a tube in my chest was removed, and I was awake enough to refuse the morphine.  By the next day, I was starting to really wake up and I was ready to go home.

It took 4 hours from the time the surgeon discharged me, until everything was done so I could leave.

At home, my mom became my primary caregiver.  For the next two weeks we had to drain the tubes and Jackson Pratt bulbs that were inserted in my chest to help get rid of any excess fluid.  I had 2 drains on each side. She also helped me keep track of the antibiotics, pain killers, and stool softeners [needed when you are on pain meds].  She also helped me shower and dress each day, as I had so little range of motion in my arms.

It was the plastic surgeon who I was reporting to for follow up.  After the first week he took out one drain on each side.  He checked my incisions which were healing well.  Then after the second week he took the remaining two drains out, and started the filling process to stretch the skin.

I was amazed at how little movement I had in my arms.  The left side where they removed the lymph nodes was the worst, and it felt numb and puffy.  I actually had very little sensation there, and ended up with a lot of scar tissue, and ugly flaps of skin on the side, along with the scarring from the drain tubes.  [They do go away, and a Physical or Occupational therapist is critical to go see so they can help you massage that skin and get it moving again].

Oh yes, one last little bit of advice: Don't let your family give you access to social media or you might find that you post a very horrible picture of your self while in a morphined induced state (not a pretty sight).

Stay tuned for my next cancer journey post: The horrors of reconstruction and the expansion process