I had my first post-op appointment with my surgeon Tuesday. I was definitely not feeling great. I could tolerate the surgical pain but just felt beat up, run over by a truck and nauseous! I was forcing myself to drink water & some “Get Wellness” tea (part of a pre-surgery gift from a dear friend!!) to stay hydrating to heal & flush out the anesthesia (that stays in your body for a month!) but I literally couldn’t stomach the thought of anything else. It felt like someone had deflated all the “energy” air right out of me! Thankfully my sweet mom (& dad- so wonderful of course to have him too but just being real it was mom who did everything!) were here to help! Moms are the just the best! And Gods blessed me with one of the best moms!! Truly! She just jumped in, took over my mom duties (she was graciously helped out by many of you with meals which was such a blessing!) & took care of me with such grace, joy & fervor! Always right there to throw in a load of laundry, play a game with her grandsons & then come bring me tea, empty my drains & give me a foot massage! She was trying to care for all my needs and those of my family so I could rest but it was hard to just rest all day everyday. Thinking I set myself back a little after a week of constant activity in the house & few very simple outings over the weekend. Who would’ve thought that just going to sit through a church service would wear me out? I surprised myself when I couldn’t make it through to the end and that started my spiral down. Thankfully I had a doggie bag in the car that I took into the appt with me. Good thing bc I ended up using it before it was over. My sweet surgeon rubbed the back of my neck as I filled the bag with the water, tea & stomach acid that has caused me such grief! Once we got that taken care of, she went on to tell me that the pathology report was not what she was hoping for. The good news was the cancer hadn’t invaded the chest muscles so they went down to fascia layer for good margins. And they were able to get good enough margins that they could spare the nipple which was great too. Also she was able to reach up through the existing incision to remove the mediport catheter (used for the chemo) sparing me from another incision. Yay!
That was the extent of the good news. I was hopeful about the lymph nodes as they had a hard time finding the marker in the node that was biopsied & found positive (shrunk by chemo?!) nor any other concerning ones on the ultrasounds I had during and after chemo. They removed & sent the sentinel nodes (first cluster) to the lab to get initial results while I was in surgery. 3/4 were found positive so she took a few more out “for good measure”. Unfortunately some of those came back positive as well on the final pathology report. I first I wondered why she hadn’t kept going til she got negative margins but after she explained her rational I was thankful! Removing more lymph nodes would put me at risk for a lifetime of lymphodema, swelling of the affected arm with the proper drainage system gone. Not fun. Knowing that I’d need radiation anyways with the number of + lymph nodes they found intra-op, she didn’t want to take more. I think the positive of decreased long term risk outweighed the bummer and risk of 6-7 weeks of daily radiation.
God is good. I am His daughter. And He is a good Father and Great Physician. One that can treat, heal & comfort my body, mind & soul that He created and cares for. I rest secure in His able arms!
Comments
Post a Comment