G'day. Last Wednesday I had a partial mastectomy. All was well until 2 hours after the operation. Then, the breast decided it was going to rebel. I had a bleed and it looked like I had had an implant inserted. Surgeon was called and he said to put pressure bandages and keep ice packs on the breast to reduce the swelling. Didn't work. I was in hospital 4 days.
I came home last Sunday with assurances the swelling would subside, but ha, it had other ideas and the swelling got worse. It looked like I had a basketball breast, not a pretty sight and to add to that, the breast was black with massive bruising. My post op check up was Tuesday just gone. I would also learn the results on this day. Surgeon took one look at the basketball, after removing the swathe of bandages and said that I would need to go back into surgery the next day. This basketball breast was not good. The fluid etc needed to be removed. So, yesterday, one week after the initial op, I was put under again and the fluid drained.
Let's go back to the initial op for a minute. It took 6 goes to try to get the cannula into a vein. Unfortunately I have very thin veins and they tend to collapse when they see a sharp pointy needle approaching. By this stage I was in a state myself and was on the verge of having a panic attack at the thought of more needles. Hooray for the surgeon, he was called and suggested that they would put the gas mask on, get me to sleep and then they would find a suitable vein. I breathed a huge sigh of relief.
Same thing yesterday. I told the young doctor about my iffy veins, but she just had to try, didn't she? After the second attempt, I was in a right royal fit and suggested they do what they had done the previous week. God bless that surgeon, he agreed again.
Anyway to cut a long story short (it will still be long) swelling is mostly gone, but not quite. Basketball has been reduced to a smaller version. I have a six inch incision under the breast and this is where they went in again yesterday. So as you can imagine I am not a happy camper. Also the report didn't come back as good as we had hoped. One good thing is the lymph nodes are clear, but in the surgeons words, the cancer was a very nasty type and they fear some of it may have broken away and travelled to who know's where. Chemotherapy is recommended. Tomorrow I travel back into the city of Melbourne, to the hospital and have a CT scan and a bone scan. Next Tuesday I have a heart test and also talk to the oncologist about the chemo etc. Hubby has been simply the best, son and daughter have been remarkable, friends and work colleagues make me realise how blessed I am to know them. It's now time to get some rest. I will continue this saga next week, when I know more. Once again, thank you to everyone who has wished me well. I do appreciate it.
Take care. Liz...
