Friday 23 May 2025
Aka "The Chopping".
6:00 checkin at the hospital hurray. That was fun for all involved. Not.
Waited a bit then saw a nurse to confirm answers to the health assessment questions (aka do them all over again). They took my overnight bag (this was around 6:30).
I went downstairs to CIG, but my appointment wasn't until 7:30. Debated waiting upstairs or downstairs. In the end I chose to wait downstairs as it was less crowded. Although I did have to go back upstairs to get my blouse which I'd forgotten.
At 7:30 I went in for radiology at CIG. Had to wait a little bit, then was able to go in and get changed. Waited some more while just in the gown. At ~7:50 went in for the scans. Riley the tech injected two needles of radioactive dye which drained quite quickly into the lypmh nodes. He took a bunch of images for that.
Radiography machine looked a bit like this one
Then back to the CIG waiting room at around 8:20.
A bit after 9:00 I went in to get the wire put in. I don't remember the doctor's name. They put in some anaesthetic then inserted a wire all the way down the tumor so the surgeon can follow it to find it. That was done by ~9:30.
Then I had to get a mammogram so they could check the positioning of the wire. Annoyingly they had to do it twice so twice the radiation #grunt. That was done by about 9:45.
Mammogram machine looked a bit like this one
Then back upstairs to wait for the actual surgery.
Just before 10:00 they took me into the hospital proper, I went to the loo, and they got me into a gown and shower cap and compression socks. My overnight bag didn't have room for all my clothes, whoops, so needed an extra bag for the overflow. Got wheeled into the OR. In the ante room I had a brief chat to Dr RW and Dr FT. I asked if they put would a catheter in my bladder, he said no (I always obsess about what would happen in various scenarios if you need to pee (eg being stuck in a lift, held in a hostage situation (Die Hard anyone?) etc )). I asked what time it was, they said it was 10:20.
Funnily enough in the OR I had to get up and transfer myself onto the operating table! Funny stuff!
Lights out. Woke up. Asked what time it was - they said 12:20.
I waited around in post-op for like half an hour (I think til around 13:10). Felt super tired (anaesthetic does that) but didn't feel relaxed enough to sleep (I never relax, have you met me?).
Then I got wheeled off to my room - which was a single room yayyy! There was a nice view of One Tree Hill when the bed is up high, but they put it down so you couldn't see the view lying down.
Then there was lots of waiting around and they did some observations at various points. They got me some sandwiches at one point which I scoffed because I was starving. Hospital Time is a thing y'all!
Eventually (14:09) I asked the nurse (Sam) to get me my phone so I could call the sweetie. He was downstairs and had been since 11:00!! Eeep!! He should have stayed home until I called! Dr RW had called him also.
Got the sweetie to take photos of me, then sent them to everyone.
Chatted to the sweetie for a bit and eventually Dr RW came by and said it all went well. Then the sweetie went home to rest.
I was so vague all afternoon. Drugs mess with your brain! Who knew!? I didn't really remember anything the surgeon said. Cath had called me at one point but I'd missed the call. Stu had to remind me that she'd even called, and afterwards I don't remember what we talked about. I think I was probably high on painkillers. Not actually *feeling* high, but pretty chilled and not in any pain. I basically kept active, paced the room somewhat, and started making the little wooden fidget spinner thingie T/J gave me. I didn't want to just sit still or lie down to reduce the risk of blood clots.
I also drank a LOT of water. Like six or seven jugs of it throughout the afternoon/evening.
There was a nice sunset. Not that I could really pay attention to it because DC called in the middle of it and talked for 20 minutes whoops.
Observations dropped back to hourly at some point.
Dinner was quite early - at 17:15; ate it while watching the last of the sunset.
Stu came back while I was finishing dinner. He was utterly exhausted from not sleeping and the very long day. He left around 18:20. I closed the door after he left - it certainly made the room a lot quieter! It felt like a lot later than 18:30 though.
I got frustrated at the water jugs because the lids were hard to get off when you've just had surgery and didn't want to strain yourself.
Puttered around getting ready for bed. Even after six or seven jugs of water I think I'd peed like once. I did eventually start peeing it later in the evening. I couldn't really relax enough to sleep with the stress of peeing and the constant interruptions.
They were debating putting something on my legs to help prevent blood clots but decided I didn't need it on account of I'm up and down like a fricken jack-in-the-box.
My blood pressure was pretty low after I took my BP medication so they just said be careful getting up.
22:00 was the last obs then they left me alone for a while.
Peed again at midnight but then only once more in the middle of the night.
Saturday 24 May 2025
Peed again at ~5.00. The new nurse came in ~5:20 for obs or something, but said I'd have time for more sleep til breakfast at 8:00. Then she came in at 7:05 (right in the middle of me listening to the news) to do another handover. Got up and did my hair and wanted to have a shower, but didn't know if I could do that with the cannula.
Note: sleep was crap. I couldn't relax and I was only allowed to sleep on one side so I was getting uncomfortable being the same position all the time. Also whenever I fell asleep I'd wake myself up with my snoring.
Dr RW came by to see me - she said everything was good and I could go home, that I'd get paperwork from the nurses.
Had some breakfast.
Started getting ready to go. They took my cannula out so I went and had a shower. I was ready to go a bit after 9.
At ~9:25 the third nurse came by with my prescriptions and discharge papers.
At 9:30 I was ready to go, just needed to wait for the sweetie.
The sweetie arrived to get me around 10:00. We went past the chemist on the way home. To a COLD HOUSE. The heater was playing up again which was all very sad.
Fiona dropped by with a care package later in the day and we had a chat which was nice. She suggested taking photos of my recovery progress. Took some panadol even though I don't think I really needed it.
Before bed I took a bunch of painkillers and anti-inflammatories.
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