So August 11th came and the morning was nicer weatherwise than had been expected. The night before, after my shower, I had to use antiseptic prep washes to make every effort to avoid infection. The morning of the surgery I had to use them again. I was glad that I was the first surgery on the schedule and a little anxious to get things moving. I woke up at 5 am and after throwing on my "I Fight Like a Girl" Breast Cancer Survivor T-Shirt, we headed for Frankford Torresdale (now known as Aria.....)We were giving information at the admissions desk at 6am. Sue and Col and I went to an area called "Observation" and there they asked me more questions, took vitals and weighed me. Within minutes someone from the OR came for me with a wheelchair. Once I was upstairs everything went quickly. I met my nurse, nurse anesthetist, a student who was going to watch, and my anesthesiologist (which thanks to Dr. Simmons intervention was NOT going to be the same one from last year who blamed me for not being able to get an IV and who became incensed when I said that "Gay" didn't mean "Happy" when he insisted on a pregnancy test and told me that I could become pregnant until I was 60! )
They started my IV through my port which was great, and then moved it to my hand once I was in dreamland in the OR. I saw Dr. Gottlieb who drew all over my front and back. He said that he was the "opener and the closer" for this surgery and that I wouldn't see Dr Simmons until probably the next day. Even though the mastectomy was being done as a precaution, the pathology department would examine the tissue to make sure that everything was fine. I said goodbye to Sue and Colleen and that was the last thing I remember until I woke up in the recovery room. It couldn't have gone smoother.
In the recovery room I remember two things: asking for ice chips repeatedly, and asking what time it was repeatedly. I went into the OR at 7:30am, the clock on the wall should not have said 2pm. Apparently when Dr. Gottlieb saw Sue and Col before surgery and said to them, "Don't expect to hear anything for at least 4 or 5 hours," they turned to each other and said, "Did you know the surgery was going to take that long?" Just a little detail...I had morphine in the recovery room and then was moved to a room on the third floor. I had 3 indwelling pain pumps and 4 drains in addition to my IV. I bought this way cool vest for them but there will be more about that in the next post.
The pain was managed with morphine and percocet at first but then the percocet was changed to valium which helps to relax the muscles that were all pulled out of place. I have to say that for the first 2 days, pain management was my biggest issue and I have a very high pain tolerance. Within the first four hours in my room I was disappointed/outraged by only two things. First, there was NO green jello. Just orange or cherry. Unaccceptable. And two, whenever I tried to lean forward (which wasn't often since this was a painfull process) I felt as if my skin was peeling off something plastic. Who knows? I just ate my orange jello and kept my mouth shut. But then, about 4 hours later, I had to go to the bathroom, so I was helped to the bedside commode by the green team and I looked over at my bed and said, "hmmmm, no one ever removed my transfer board." For those of you who do not work in healthcare, a transfer board is a hard plastic board used to move patients from stretchers to beds,etc. AND THEN TO BE REMOVED. In my case since it was not removed and I was in a semi-sitting up position, the board had conformed (somewhat) to my body and was a twisted wreck. I thought this was pretty funny (perhaps drug-induced humor) and I was happy to be more comfortable once I got back into bed. Dr. Simmons did not think this was funny at all so it probably wasn't. She usually has a pretty good sense of humor.
A funny thing did happen the first night of my admission though. I was not allowed out of bed by myself for obvious reasons. I was 2 doors down from the nurses station so there was a lot of noise around me. My nurse shut the door so I could sleep (and hermatically seal me off from all contact with the outside world). At some point I dropped my call bell on the floor which didn't really bother me until I (1)Needed pain meds and (2)Needed to go to the bathroom. There was no way I was getting this call bell back. What would MacGyver do? Hmmmm. I thought about creating a fishing line from the cord that turns on my light but I was not physically able to reach behind me...then I thought about tying a pillow case to the handle of a water pitcher and try to retrieve the call bell that way. Clearly MacGyver had never had bilateral mastectomies with reconstruction including a right dorsi flap option....What next???? I pulled my overbed table toward me ever so gently until I could reach my cell phone. The problem here would be that I had not turned my cell phone on in four months and the reception around the hospital is spotty at best. Since Susan works at Torresdale I knew the main number by heart and the conversation went something like this: Hello, my name is Susan Bamburak (slurred due to sleep and meds), and I am admitted on the third floor of this hospital. I don't know what room - it is dark and I can't turn the light on because I just had surgery. I dropped my call bell and I was wondering if you could look me up in the computer and connect me to the nursing station on my floor.......what????....because I have to go to the bathroom and I am in pain...thank you...When my nurse got on the phone she couldn't stop laughing but she came right in.
Anyway, both Drs. Simmons and Gottlieb were happy with the way the surgery went and the way (in this short time) it seems to be healing. Tune in later for a visit from Kara, Ashley and Casey, a critique on the new "Swedish Fish" flavored water ice, and pathology reports: friend or foe. Thank you for responding to my request to post your responses. Later.
They started my IV through my port which was great, and then moved it to my hand once I was in dreamland in the OR. I saw Dr. Gottlieb who drew all over my front and back. He said that he was the "opener and the closer" for this surgery and that I wouldn't see Dr Simmons until probably the next day. Even though the mastectomy was being done as a precaution, the pathology department would examine the tissue to make sure that everything was fine. I said goodbye to Sue and Colleen and that was the last thing I remember until I woke up in the recovery room. It couldn't have gone smoother.
In the recovery room I remember two things: asking for ice chips repeatedly, and asking what time it was repeatedly. I went into the OR at 7:30am, the clock on the wall should not have said 2pm. Apparently when Dr. Gottlieb saw Sue and Col before surgery and said to them, "Don't expect to hear anything for at least 4 or 5 hours," they turned to each other and said, "Did you know the surgery was going to take that long?" Just a little detail...I had morphine in the recovery room and then was moved to a room on the third floor. I had 3 indwelling pain pumps and 4 drains in addition to my IV. I bought this way cool vest for them but there will be more about that in the next post.
The pain was managed with morphine and percocet at first but then the percocet was changed to valium which helps to relax the muscles that were all pulled out of place. I have to say that for the first 2 days, pain management was my biggest issue and I have a very high pain tolerance. Within the first four hours in my room I was disappointed/outraged by only two things. First, there was NO green jello. Just orange or cherry. Unaccceptable. And two, whenever I tried to lean forward (which wasn't often since this was a painfull process) I felt as if my skin was peeling off something plastic. Who knows? I just ate my orange jello and kept my mouth shut. But then, about 4 hours later, I had to go to the bathroom, so I was helped to the bedside commode by the green team and I looked over at my bed and said, "hmmmm, no one ever removed my transfer board." For those of you who do not work in healthcare, a transfer board is a hard plastic board used to move patients from stretchers to beds,etc. AND THEN TO BE REMOVED. In my case since it was not removed and I was in a semi-sitting up position, the board had conformed (somewhat) to my body and was a twisted wreck. I thought this was pretty funny (perhaps drug-induced humor) and I was happy to be more comfortable once I got back into bed. Dr. Simmons did not think this was funny at all so it probably wasn't. She usually has a pretty good sense of humor.
A funny thing did happen the first night of my admission though. I was not allowed out of bed by myself for obvious reasons. I was 2 doors down from the nurses station so there was a lot of noise around me. My nurse shut the door so I could sleep (and hermatically seal me off from all contact with the outside world). At some point I dropped my call bell on the floor which didn't really bother me until I (1)Needed pain meds and (2)Needed to go to the bathroom. There was no way I was getting this call bell back. What would MacGyver do? Hmmmm. I thought about creating a fishing line from the cord that turns on my light but I was not physically able to reach behind me...then I thought about tying a pillow case to the handle of a water pitcher and try to retrieve the call bell that way. Clearly MacGyver had never had bilateral mastectomies with reconstruction including a right dorsi flap option....What next???? I pulled my overbed table toward me ever so gently until I could reach my cell phone. The problem here would be that I had not turned my cell phone on in four months and the reception around the hospital is spotty at best. Since Susan works at Torresdale I knew the main number by heart and the conversation went something like this: Hello, my name is Susan Bamburak (slurred due to sleep and meds), and I am admitted on the third floor of this hospital. I don't know what room - it is dark and I can't turn the light on because I just had surgery. I dropped my call bell and I was wondering if you could look me up in the computer and connect me to the nursing station on my floor.......what????....because I have to go to the bathroom and I am in pain...thank you...When my nurse got on the phone she couldn't stop laughing but she came right in.
Anyway, both Drs. Simmons and Gottlieb were happy with the way the surgery went and the way (in this short time) it seems to be healing. Tune in later for a visit from Kara, Ashley and Casey, a critique on the new "Swedish Fish" flavored water ice, and pathology reports: friend or foe. Thank you for responding to my request to post your responses. Later.
4 comments:
hello...great to hear from you, and you seem to be of good spirit! You have a way of looking on the bright side,very inspiring. Thinking of you often...feel better!
There never is a call bell when you need one. I am so impressed you could think about how to contact your nurse on so much pain meds. God bless you this day. love lucille
Wait, wait! What about the cool vest? I want to hear about that. Glad things went well. Now you can wait to see if they charge you for a damaged transfer board. Keepin' the good vibes flowin'...
Love, Mauri & Lorraine
Hang in there Sue!!!
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