Surgery Tuesday. Lumpectomy. As long as they get a big enough clear margin, that will be it for surgery. If not, may need a slightly less intense surgery the following Tuesday, I will know that by Thursday. If a third or subsequent surgery is called for, I wll need to make some decisions.
The Wednesday a week after the first (hopefully only) surgery, I will know what type of cancer I have and what stage it is. This will determine the rest of the treatment protocol, but chemo and radiation both still look likely.
That's about it. Finished the day off with a flu shot and another minor procedure, so pretty stuffed at the moment. Will check in again later. Very happy that things are starting to move....
9 comments:
Good luck, Miss Mayhem! Be thinking of you. Here's to everything going smoothly in the operation and afterward.
Good luck Mayhem!
Thinking good thoughts for you.
Abe
Fingers crossed that they get all they need to slice out of you first time round.
Remember to leave jewellery etc somewhere safe i.e. at home when you go in. I've been wearing my grandmother's wedding ring since I was 15 and somehow for me the biggest wrench when I went in for my surgery was having to take off the ring and hand it over to a nurse for safe keeping. It probably sounds bizarre but I felt like I was parting company with my grandmother.
Anyway, that's me and my attachment to THINGS, but its the one bit of advice I always pass on to people going in for the kind of surgery that's already traumatic enough.
The other thing I probably wasn't prepared for was the surgeon - who had been wonderful - walking up to me with a black marker pen and saying 'Now which side was the tumour again?'
Again, this may sound odd but the hardest thing about the surgery for me was that you aren't allowed to drink anything from 8pm the night before. My surgery got delayed an hour or two into the am and all I could think of was WATER. The longing for H2O eclipsed the anxiety I had about the surgery...making me suspect that they do this on purpose to give you something else to worry about and all those claims about the need for an empty stomach on surgery are just BS. (:
good luck.
Quokka, with you on the nil by mouth thing. I already know that my surgery won't be until mid afternoon at best, and have been warned that it will probably be more like 4 or 5 pm factoring in delays. They advise a couple of large glasses of water before bed Monday night, as close to midnight as I can, 'cos I aint allowed nothin after that. : (
Oh dear.
Sounds horrible.
Maybe lay off the caffeine and any other diuretics for a few days before the surgery so that fluid isn't getting sucked out of your body any faster than it needs to be.
Poor you.
Make sure there's some good pain killers in the medicine chest for the days after the surgery.
I don't like pills but I was reaching for the big guns in the days after mine.
Admittedly mine was my ankle so a big part of the problem was localized swelling and oedema. Surgery that happens close to your heart has the benefits of good circulation but it will still Farking Hurt. The pain started to become bearable after about 48 hours and I think that's because that's how long it takes for the worst of the swelling to go down.
Are you staying in overnight so that the nurses can wait on you hand and foot?
I recommend Avoidance therapy for the days after the surgery, find your favorite box set escapist DVDs and pretend it's happening to someone else.
Got me through the Yucks, anyway.
xox
A flu shot? Goodness, if you wanted the flu, you didn't need a needle full of the stuff. You could have just come over to my place - there's heaps of it here. Apparently. Although I'm beginning to suspect it was feigned flu, as the kidlet involved had an excursion she didn't want to go on.
If only you could get out of yukky stuff so easily, Mayhem. You're so brave. Keep us posted.
I'll be thinking of you tomorrow.
Fingers crossed for one surgery, and that's it.
Let us know when you're up to company and I'll shout you a two litre bottle of spring water.
Between now and midnight, drink up.
xoxo, big hugs.
Have been thinking of you all day, Mayhem. I hope you're being well looked after. LYLT.
Me too.
I hope it all went well.
xox
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