Welcome to Surgeryland! I arrived here at the very comfortable Royal North Shore Private Hospital on Friday. It's now Sunday afternoon. It's all blurred into one...I expect to be here til Tuesday.
According to plan, I had surgery on Friday morning to remove the tissue identified by Dr Rowena (apparently there was quite a bit left; I will be having some cross words with Dr Dave!), to remove my old implant and the insertion of a fluid expander - a temporary implant - put in to keep my skin expanded throughout the time of of my radiotherapy. Two drains were also inserted; these are the reason I need to stay in hospital for so long.
Dr Elisabeth, who I like very much and who has been so sympathetic to my plight, did the 3 hour surgery along with Dr Lindsay, a quirky, cheeky anaesthetist. I came out of recovery without much pain, and got back to the ward late afternoon to be greeted and cared for by Robbie.
On Saturday morning I felt I was making good progress getting back on my feet until Dr Elizabeth did her rounds and discovered that there had been a leak in the expander - with all the expander fluid having run into the drain. Noooooo! So ... NOT according to plan, I ended back in surgery with Elizabeth and Lindsey yesterday afternoon for a second operation to remove the faulty expander and have a fresh one put in. It was much quicker procedure thank goodness, and I was back on the ward late afternoon.
All of this I found rather distressing, to say the least. I'm so sick of things not going to plan and the idea of another anaesthetic and being cut open two days in a row made me upset. I also knew it would be really hard on Robbie who has had to put up with so much emotional stress recently. But as usual he was a tower of strength, keeping me calm before the surgery and ready and waiting to hold my hand at the end. It was lovely to also have a brief visit from Cazy before I went into surgery, and a chat with Dad and Lindy. Dear Paulie and Geeta were keeping Angus entertained while Jamie was keen to look after himself.
I had a rather disrupted night, thanks to a difficult and distressed neighbour who was giving the nurses grief. (I don't know how they cope, they certainly don't get paid enough to put up with all that goes with their job). I was largely pain-free, thanks to Dr Lindsey slipping some extra morphine into my drip after he saw me on the ward yesterday evening - the nurses were not impressed! I've been feeling quite bright today - the drainage loss is normal; fingers crossed, we are back on track, and no anaesthetic for me today.
I blame this problem partly on the fact that the nurses made me remove my good luck seed pearl earrings (Day 41) before Friday's surgery. Yesterday I insisted they stay in and things seem to have gone much more smoothly!
I've decided while I'm in Surgeryland and recovery mode, I'll feature my bangle and bracelet collection starting with the obvious: the bracelet generously given to me when I entered hospital. I got an attractive red one as a reminder to the staff I'm allergic to a particular antibiotic.
Robbie and the boys came for a lunch time visit today. James was very taken with the fold out chair while Angus had fun moving my bed up and down. The boys then took themselves home on the train - which was very grown up of them - so Rob could stay and give me a refreshing shower and keep me company for the afternoon.
We had a relaxing afternoon with the sun pouring into the room - it really is a pleasant place. Robbie took me for a spin around the ward to get my legs moving. I'm retaining fluid again. Maddie popped in to drop off dinner and treats she and Marcella made for me and for the boys - she's an absolute wonder.
Just as I was settling in to my evening I had a cannula malfunction, which is necessary for my IV antibiotics (essential given my chemo suppressed system). Holy shit! It's the most painful thing of my hospital stay by far. Seriously, when will someone invent something that will replace those torturous things. We can send probes to Mars, surely we can find a pain-free way to access veins. There was some discussion between the nurses about re-cannulating me, but I begged them not to. Instead I asked them to try and find a nurse who could access the port. Thankfully, there was a nurse available on the oncology ward upstairs who was willing and able to put it in - as she did I had Mum's words ringing in my ears "I love my port"! The IV fluid is now happily dripping away with absolutely no pain.
I'm now nestled in for the night - I've just taken more morphine based pain relief so I expect to get floaty very soon, and hopefully sleep a bit better than last night and experience another day merging into the next.
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