Under the Knife

The Day I Lost my Boobs aka My big "Under the Knife" Day is all quite a blur. But I am an awesome list maker (I kept some good notes in my little pink book. Ya know... some have little black books... Mine happens to be pink. LOL) so I thought I'd share my schedule of events for the day. And my thoughts about a few pictures I got in spite of being highly drugged all day.

August 1, 2012
5:30 am- Woke up to go.
6 am- Check-in. Answer questions from Nurse Leah. Got into Paws suit. Fill it with warm air. Dr. Split- Anesthesia came by to meet us.
7 am- Dr. HighTower & Dr. Bouton stopped by to see introduce themselves. Leah started IV.
8 am- Lymphadema Imaging
9 am- Wheeled me upstairs. Goodbye to Brett. Got a little emotional. Bathroom. I'm my own saline pole.
Operating room. Gave me a relaxer. Next moment- "Sheleray, You're all done."
[Brett ran home to check on the sick kids. He was only home a half an hour when Sr. Stover called and said he was done. They were super speedy Boob removers. Let's pretend that has nothing to do with the size or "maturity" of my breasts. LOL]
11:30 am- I wake up in  the recovery room. My speech and sight are all weird. I dosed in and out for quite a while. Oxygenator on finger. Oxygen in nose. Blood pressure. IV.
1:00 pm- Gave me powerful pain meds through IV. Nurse Carol. Wait for observation. and them getting a room ready for me.
2:00 pm- Wheeled me up stairs but wait in hallway while they finished cleaning room #268 in new Maturity wing. Dang nice room!
2:10 pm- Saw Brett. Unhooked IV but still have Oxygenator on thumb, blood pressure cuff and they put on leg presses to avoid blood clots. Nurse Kyla took vitals.
3:00 pm- Stood up  for 1st time. Used bathroom. Requested meds. Can move arms lots more than I thought I would be able to.
4:10 pm- They hooked up IV again to get me fluids. Still no meds. Asked again. Dull pain but don't want it to get bad. Finally asked for morphin instead. Ate jello & applesauce. Got pink Limb Alert Bracelet.
4:45 pm- Took a nap. Flowers delivered from Seamons Family. Brett went home to take care of sick kids.
5:15 pm- Dr. Bouton stopped by. Checked out stitches. Changed pads. He said first results show nothing in the lymph nodes. YEAH! Nurse Ellen took vitals.
6:15 pm- Jen Neuteboom came to visit. Bathroom.
7:30 pm- Order dinner- Chicken Noodle soup, strawberry jello and juice.
8:00 pm- Meds- Norco (2). Ate. Chatted.
9:00 pm- Jen left. Called family to say goodnight.
9:30 pm- Vitals. Used Bathroom. Slept.

Now for PICTURES!
This is my Recovery Nurse Carol. She was great! She was the one that was with me during recovery, gave me pain meds (Yeah for her!) and wheeled me up to my room.

These are the lovely anti-clotting leg compressing wear that I got to sport for the 1st day or two. They filled with air in different spots at different times and rotated from one leg to the other- repeating the cycle over and over and over again every couple minutes. They were really buggy! And they wanted me to have them on EVERY minute that I was laying in bed. I couldn't wait until I was up and moving so I could take them off. They made it so I had to ask to be unplugged every time I had to use the restroom. What a pain!

This was my 1st room Nurse Kyla. She was kind but was only with me for a couple hours before shift changes.

This is my fun PINK Limb Alert Bracelet that will now be a permanent part of my hospital attire for the rest of my life. Now that they took out limb nodes in my right armpit, I have to be cautious of ever having blood drawn or blood pressure taken on that arm. Dang! Cuz that is the arm that has the best veins in it. ;( Oh well! Bummer deal of the Cancer fight!

A shout out to my Sunshine friend, Jen for spending some time with me. Thanks for hanging out with me for the evening. You're awesome!

This is my favorite Nurse Rachel from my stay at the Hospital. She was so kind and friendly! Most of my time with her was in the middle of the night but I am grateful for her. She was my night nurse for both days I was there. It was her and I that had the joke about Dr. Hightower being Dr. Tall, Dark & Handsome. [I wasn't sure of his name and when she saw him, we both agreed of him fitting the bill for our knick name of him.] Thanks for all your help, lady! You were so appreciated! [None of my nurses from Day Two were even blog-worthy. Not that they were mean but they weren't worth taking the time for a picture.]

So there's my BIG day in a nutshell. We made it through Day One! We feel so blessed that things went well. We'll have our final pathology reports in a couple days. Here's to a speedy recovery!