I wasn’t sure about the order of operations—I just knew I had to be there at 7 at the surgical admissions and that I would have the wire inserted before surgery. Other than that, I didn’t know. Turns out, I got checked in and then sent to the breast center for the wire procedure. Both that and the IV insertion were my biggest fears; again, for me it’s all about the needles, not the post-op pain. While post-op pain hurts, it’s constant and I wasn’t awake when it was inflicted if that makes sense.
Anyway, we got to the breast center and I have to say everyone was beyond kind and gentle. When the technician learned how fearful I was of the wire insertion, she promised she would hold my hand—and she did. In fact, she had her hand on my leg as a reassurance even before the radiologist got started and that was just so comforting. At one point, I asked what her ink was on the inside of her upper arm. She has part of Proverbs 31 there and we talked about that. Then I asked about the music and that started a hilarious conversation about the evolution of music at the breast center. They’ve tried spa-like music (too many birds and frogs), country music (only the technicians were happy), some mellow music that ended up having quiet F-bombs in the lyrics so got nixed right away, and now they have some weird compilation of classical music (only it’s not classical, not really).
The wire itself was much longer than either Kent or I thought it would be. I guessed it would maybe stick out an inch but nope. It was more like half a foot, like a giant cat whisker, well past my body. The technician said they have three lengths of wire but were out of the smallest size. Then I had to have two mammograms to make sure the wire was in the right spot. That was weird and very uncomfortable, even though my breast was numb. Once those were finished, the technician sort of coiled up the wire and gently taped some gauze over it and down we went to surgery.
Once again, everyone was great, talked with me about anything and everything. The anesthesiologist made sure I had a patch for nausea (doesn’t everyone throw up with general anesthesia?) and told me because I have a lot of problems with nausea, he’d do something called tiva—total IV anesthesia, no gas. He said that method would help a lot and it did. The IV was as expected but then it was done and I could relax.
Kent got brought back, then my priest showed up and I was so glad to see her. She’s one of three at Saint Andrew’s and it meant so much to me that she came. She prayed for me and I must be turning into the biggest mush melon because I cried and cried. Kent cried too, it was just such a comforting thing for me and for him.
Then off I went. I remember the anesthesiologist injecting a sedative into my IV as they wheeled me away and I felt nicely mellow but could still help them get me on the OR table. Then she told me she was starting the tiva and that was it, lights out.
I did take a while to get alert enough to go home. I think I was in recovery by noon but didn’t leave for home until 2. But everyone was again so kind, checking on my nausea (which wasn’t bad), my pain (which was not pleasant), and getting me prepped to leave.
Once we got home, I slept for about three hours—long enough that Kent told me later he was getting worried. But I was fine, just very tired. I did end up throwing up but only once, which is a big improvement over most surgeries I’ve had.
So that’s the color commentary.
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| A friend gave me these & I wore them on Monday |
The wire itself was much longer than either Kent or I thought it would be. I guessed it would maybe stick out an inch but nope. It was more like half a foot, like a giant cat whisker, well past my body. The technician said they have three lengths of wire but were out of the smallest size. Then I had to have two mammograms to make sure the wire was in the right spot. That was weird and very uncomfortable, even though my breast was numb. Once those were finished, the technician sort of coiled up the wire and gently taped some gauze over it and down we went to surgery.
Once again, everyone was great, talked with me about anything and everything. The anesthesiologist made sure I had a patch for nausea (doesn’t everyone throw up with general anesthesia?) and told me because I have a lot of problems with nausea, he’d do something called tiva—total IV anesthesia, no gas. He said that method would help a lot and it did. The IV was as expected but then it was done and I could relax.
Kent got brought back, then my priest showed up and I was so glad to see her. She’s one of three at Saint Andrew’s and it meant so much to me that she came. She prayed for me and I must be turning into the biggest mush melon because I cried and cried. Kent cried too, it was just such a comforting thing for me and for him.
Then off I went. I remember the anesthesiologist injecting a sedative into my IV as they wheeled me away and I felt nicely mellow but could still help them get me on the OR table. Then she told me she was starting the tiva and that was it, lights out.
I did take a while to get alert enough to go home. I think I was in recovery by noon but didn’t leave for home until 2. But everyone was again so kind, checking on my nausea (which wasn’t bad), my pain (which was not pleasant), and getting me prepped to leave.
Once we got home, I slept for about three hours—long enough that Kent told me later he was getting worried. But I was fine, just very tired. I did end up throwing up but only once, which is a big improvement over most surgeries I’ve had.
So that’s the color commentary.
1 comment:
How’s your pain now? Hope all is well.
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