21 September 2011

Ups and Downs


So much for a great day on Tuesday.  I've been resting as I should - I sleep when I'm tired and stare at the ceiling when I'm not.  I liked getting out of the house and going for a walk because I am going stir crazy.  My legs and torso can take the walking, but unfortunately I've been pushing and pulling and reaching a little too much and my surgery zone is not feeling very well.  So Tuesday night and Wednesday I opted for the vicodin and ativan and I felt like crap all day Wednesday - nauseous, dizzy, listless and sluggish.  I'm now back on the ibuprofen and looking forward to resuming walking, but no pushing, pulling or reaching.

Tuesday my neighbor, the oncology nurse, came by and removed my pain ball catheter.  I'd liken it to feeling like a piece of celery being peeled.  Weird to feel the tubing pulling out from my neck on one side and my armpit on the other.  My drains are a pain in the side.  The tubes are pulling my stitches a bit and I can't wait to lose one of those on each side on Thursday.  They aren't nearly as gross as I had thought but I hate having to sleep on my back.

I am now getting sharp pains around my incision sites.  They come and go and aren't nearly as aggravating as the constant feeling of tightness around my armpits.  Like I'm wearing a tailored blazer that's too small and the arm holes are digging in.  Another development is the swath of 'fever skin' down the back of my left arm.  It's all numb and tingly at the same time, like I smacked my funny bone really hard.  I'm hoping that it's just inflamed from the procedure and it will calm down, rather than a permanent side affect of Dr. Boob pulling out nine lymph nodes.

Friday's surgery went well, but not exactly as planned.  Whenever a sentinel node biopsy is done, there's a little wiggle room for what will happen.  They shot me up with the dye, but when she got in there she only found two nodes with dye, and then she found a bunch of hard ones and her rule of thumb is to take ANY that she can feel.  Hard nodes indicate inflammation/infection of some kind so once she found some that she could feel she kept going after them.  Ultimately she took nine out.  They came back negative on the first look.

Tuesday brought the pathology report back and some isolated cancer cells were found in one of the nine excised lymph nodes.  Even so, because they were isolated, the path report is listing the nodes as negative.  Yes, I don't understand it either, and that question will have to wait for the oncologist.

There were two separate tumors, 2.1 and 2.0 centimeters.  Those were a little larger than we were hoping for.  This bumps me up a stage... we think.  The margins were negative (clear.)  We will find out more after we meet with the oncologist.  Thursday's appointment with Dr. Boob is just the hand off.

I also have an appointment with Two-Drain on Thursday and I'm eager to get that over with as well.  I think tape and stitches will be removed.  And maybe I can loosen up the compression bra I've been wearing 24/7.  I haven't taken a good deep breath for days.