Surgery update!

Hi blogging friends, sorry for the delay, it has been a long week.

Before I keep you wondering surgery went well and now we await the results which we should have by Wednesday or Thursday of this week.

Last Tuesday was long day, here is what I remember.

10:00 am arrive at hospital go to nuclear medicine.
by 10:30 I was laying on a gurney getting 5 tiny little needles poked into my first mole removal area, these needles had a clear medicine in that would then go through my lymph node system and show the doctors exactly where the lymph nodes were draining to for the potential of the direction the caner would flow if there is any more cancer in my system.

The needles hurt like ___________and as much as I was trying to be strong I cried like a baby, and I cried hard. Because it was nuclear medicine they could not give me an anesthesia so it was all or nothing and if we did not do this procedure they would not know were to take out the lymph nodes so I had to have it, lets just say I would rather give birth.

after they injected me with the solution I was to lay still for about an hour and half as they moved the scanner to different parts of my body and they x-ray ed these different areas, 6 to be exact, they then gave us a copy of the films and sent me to surgery.

We arrived in surgery about 12:00 pm I had not had anything to eat since dinner on the 25Th and by now I am hungry, I only had water when I brushed my teeth at 8Am, and of course every where I went people were eating! We checked into the nurses station and they give you a buzzer like at the restaurants, when it is your tun they buzz you and bring you into pre-op, my buzzer went off at 12:50, I thought wow! they are ahead of schedule, surgery is not scheduled until 2 pm and it is only 10 min. till 1pm .

I was wrong, we waited in pre op for an hour and half, of course they do all the pre op kind of stuff, weights and heights, blood pressure ,IV's, this by the way was very ouchy too, normally I give blood very well out of my veins in my left arm, so when my iv guy asked what do I prefer, I said left, I meant arm, but did not say that, he went in my let hand, talk about cold, I could feel everything, thank goodness for those warm blankets.

Doctor Chang came by about 2:15 to see if I was all set, what was was I gonna say? no,? I think I will pass, :) they were rolling me to surgery by 2:30 and the last thing I remember was saying, thank you to my nurse as she said good luck and walked out the door ( I was trying to be very polite, but was scared to death)

I came out of surgery at 4:30 there are three incisions in my body, one on my lower leg the original mole spot, one on my back under my bra strap, and then the third is on my bikini line on the right side where they ended up taking out several lymph nodes. I have 8 stitches on my leg, 4 on my back and super glue on bikini line:)

I had been intubated for the process so my throat hurt for three days and I could not swallow anything but liquids and even that hurt, but by yesterday I was eating smaller but three meals a day, I lost 8 pounds over the week, not intentionally and I am sure it will all come back as I eat and drink more, I could not even get out of bed for two days the pain medication they have me on is narco, and it is taking its toll, but yesterday I was feeling better and today I will try to stay up more of the the day , every time I take the medicine it knocks me out. Matt has gone to work for the whole day today and the two older boys are at church camp, so it should be an easy day, I am feeling stronger but can not put any weight on my foot for another two weeks, steps are interesting as well as going potty:)

The surgeon said he thought the lymph nodes looked good to his naked eye, but we really need to wait for the the official results, so we wait...... and as always ...... will keep you posted