Surgery

Since I had small, lazy  cancer, either a mastectomy or lumpectomy could be done. My goal was to disrupt my life as little as possible. A mastectomy would mean a 0-5% re-occurrence rate and no radiation, except if the nodes were positive for cancer. It would require 4-6 weeks recovery. The survival rate of a lumpectomy was the same, with a 5-10% re-occurrence rate, but would require radiation. The recovery would take a week. The trauma of removal and a long recovery of loping off a body part was not appealing, especially with a small cancer. I chose lumpectomy.

This recovery from this surgery meant no swimming for two weeks, no running or cycling for a week. This was annoying, but tolerable. Walking was allowed. At least my muscles wouldn’t totally go to hell. Being a Type A triathlete, it’s very hard to let my body go idle.

Transportation to the surgery and back would be a hassle. I hated to ask anyone to help, but had no choice. The schedule was stupid. I had to be at one place at 10:30 a.m. for a needle localization, then go to another place for the surgery and wait around until 3:00 p.m. This was a lot to ask someone. Maybe I could Uber down and have someone pick me up, so they weren’t waiting around forever.

Eight hours prior to surgery, fasting was required and drinking nothing except a cup of sports drink. At least I could get breakfast and coffee before 7:00 a.m. No coffee would be unbearable. Not being able to drink water made me anxious. I was a little light-headed riding down. A friend drove me and stuck around the area the whole time. I felt bad about the inconvenience to her.

The needle location involved compressing the breast in an mamogram machine and inserting a long, thin needle that projected out of the tissue. The imager suggested not looking at it and I had no urge to see an alien projectile emerging from my body. Then, they coiled it up and covered it in a bandaid. The needle insertion hurt, like the last time, even with numbing. At least I got to sit down and it wasn’t as much poking.

They made me take a wheel chair down and my driver took me to the other place. Again, it was the routine of registering, waiting around, and going back to a holding area. My driver took off after the registration. I found out to my surprise that someone was supposed to stay all night with me and that I had to get rid of my debit card and cash. But of course I had to pay their fee. It would have been nice to know this ahead of time.

I laid on a gurney for 1.5 hours until a nurse came and gave me an IV. I got rid of my contacts beforehand. I had been warm waiting, but when the fluid was injected, I got cold and my legs felt shaky. After some more waiting, another nurse asked me a bunch of medical questions. She was a talkative and no nonsense. She complained about the omission by someone of my support socks. My blood pressure soared again with the stressful idea of being cut up.

General anesthesia would be used, with a breathing tube. The anesthesia doctor came in and I mentioned my past experience after surgery that involved a splitting headache and vomiting three times. Hopefully, this wouldn’t happen again.

Reading a book about Alexander Hamilton passed the time in between the various medical personnel. Waiting was boring and stressful.  Finally, it was showtime. Surgery was supposed to last an hour and a half.

My surgeon came in and talked about the surgery and aftercare. The results of the test to see if the margins were clear would come in four days. Rarely, the surgery has to be done again. The results of the test on the nodes would take two weeks to come in. She suggested that my February 10k might be better to pass on because the side effects of the anesthesia last a long time. I was surprised to hear that, blithely thinking that I would feel fine in a short amount of time.

I don’t remember getting a sedative or anesthesia. Waking up, I was really groggy, but not in pain because the surgeon had given me a novocaine block. Wanting to really get the hell out of there,  I tried desperately to force myself out of the mental fog. It was dark outside and the holding area looked empty.

When I was more functional, they put me in a soft chair to get dressed. My driver couldn’t start her car, so she had to call her husband to jumpstart the car. I finally got out of there by six. We stopped by the drugstore to get painkiller pills. She had called my other friend to stay for the night. I wasn’t prepared for this and was stressed, but we adapted.

I ate some applesauce and plain brown rice, because I wasn’t super hungry and didn’t want to risk nausea. I went to bed about 8:30.

I was too tired to get up and take the painkiller at 9:40, but by 11:30, the novocaine had worn off and I hurt, so I took one. Sleep was difficult, especially on my left side. My back also hurt, so I tried laying on a lacross ball to unknot the muscles. The cat complained a few times during the night. All in all, a crappy night’s sleep.

“RECOVERY”

I underestimated how bad my body would feel. Not having had any heavy duty surgery since my daughter was born, I naively thought that normal activity could be resumed right away. Ice and Hydrocodone helped with pain, but not much. Then two days later, the pain lessened and fatigue set in. I walked for a mile the day after surgery, then gradually worked up to three miles running the week after. The jarring of running hurt the surgery site, but the discomfort got better. Cutting out cancer in a lumpectomy made rearranging chest muscles necessary, so they ached with movement.

A week later, I got my bandaids off, which was a relief. It was weird to take showers and feel like the plastic film on my skin was getting water logged. The tissue was still swollen and achy, but the margins were clear. There were two lesions. Two lymph nodes were negative, which was a relief.

TAKEAWAYS FROM THE EXPERIENCE:

1. Sometimes I have to accept help even if I don’t want it.

2. General anesthesia messes up the body for weeks.

3. Discomfort from slicing the body can last for months.

4. I hate being a patient. Recovery is boring and painful.

5. Even when I feel better, I still tire easily.

6. Even when tired, it’s good to force my body to exercise, though not at the same levels pre-surgery.

7. “Recovery” isn’t total recovery, but the fatigue and discomfort subside. Real recovery takes a lot longer.

NEXT: RADIATION