An update

Thank you everyone for all of the prayers and positive thoughts this week.  I hope you know how much all of you mean to me.

The surgery was more extensive and took longer than they had expected.  I'm going to talk about the day.

We arrived at the hospital by 8:15 am.  We checked in at day surgery and I was taken back to a small holding room.  Because we had Haley with us, they only took me back first to get everything started and then they would get Jason and Haley.  I changed my clothes and then they started the IV.  Because I had been poked so many times already in my left arm and on my left hand, the nurse practically put the IV in my wrist which gave me pain all day long.  It was a little after 9 when Jason and Haley were brought back to the room.  They got comfortable or as comfortable as possible.  Jason also turned the TV on while I read my book (The Girl Who Played with Fire - I had hoped to finish it and even purchased the 3rd book for afterwards, but I didn't get to finish it that day and haven't been in the mood to hold up the book.) 

At 10:30 am, a nurse from Nuclear Medicine came to get me.  The radiologist inserted some radioactive isotopes into my breast and then I was put under a machine which took pictures of the dye.  I didn't really pay attention.  I just wanted it to be over.  After that part, I was taken to mammography.  The tech stuck me in the machine and took the pictures.  I couldn't move while she developed the film.  They were trying to locate the titanium clip that had been inserted during my biopsy.  Once the clip was located, the radiologist came in again and inserted a needle into my breast towards the clip.  They took another picture to see if they were in the right spot.  After this a guide wire was inserted into the needle.  This would help the surgeon during the surgery because he would be able to go the exact spot where the biopsy was done and he could remove the clip and surrounding area.  After the wire was stuck in, they needed to do another mammogram to check the wire.  At this point, the spot where I had the biopsy started to bleed.  I have a hard time seeing blood that isn't supposed to be coming out.  I almost passed out and had to be laid down on the floor with my legs up.  (This also happened at home after the biopsy.  I must have moved to much and caused it to bleed quite a bit and I almost passed out in the bathroom.)  Once they made sure I was okay, I was taken back to my holding pen, I mean room. 

I caught Jason sitting in my chair.  Lol.  It was a pretty comfortable reclining chair, so I guess I can't blame him.  I think at this time it was around 1 pm.  Surgery was scheduled for 2 pm, so we were just counting down.  My pastor came by sometime after that and joked around with us.  2 pm came and went and finally at 2:30 the anesthesiologist came in to introduce himself.  Not too long after that my surgeon came in to explain everything again.  My pastor introduced himself to Dr. Ortiz and Dr. Ortiz said that they both had the same boss.  I really love my surgeon.  He told us about the blue dye he was going to inject into me to see the lymph nodes light up.  He said that he would work on the lymph nodes first and then work on the breast tissue.  He told Jason that it would take approximately 1.5 hours.  He asked if anyone had questions and even asked Haley if she had any questions, but we were good to go.

My pastor said a quick prayer and then they left as the nurse showed up to wheel me away.  My biggest worry was being put to sleep.  Prior to this I had never had any type of surgery, so I had never experienced this.  The last thing I remember was climbing up on the table and the anesthesiologist making jokes.  The room started getting blurry and then the next thing I know I'm waking up in recovery.  I can make out the clock and it's after 7:30 pm.  Outpatient surgery is closed, so they wheel me up to a room.  The nurse tells me that I can either go home or stay depending on how I feel.  I was in pain and I could see in Jason's face that he wasn't ready to take care of me, so we stayed at the hospital.  Jason asked the nurse if it was okay for Haley to stay and she said sure.  Thankfully, there were two of those convertible chairs, so they could both have their own space.  They ended up in the same chair because it was cold in the room and they only had one blanket.

Dr. Ortiz came to visit me in the morning.  He told me that my lymph nodes were a lot deeper than he had anticipated, so that part was more extensive and the incision was larger than he had hoped for.  He ended up taking out two lymph nodes, but he said that they looked fine and didn't appear sickly.  Then he started working on the breast tissue.  The cancer was in a bad location - directly behind my nipple.  This made it very hard to reach.  He made the incision through the areola to hopefully minimize my scar.  Again the infected breast tissue was deep and he ended up removing tissue all the way to my chest wall.  He is very positive that he removed everything, but we are still waiting on the pathology reports. 

We visited his office yesterday afternoon for my post-op appointment.  He removed the bandages and is very pleased with my incisions and hopes that in 6 months we will hardly be able to see them.  He wouldn't take out my drain tube yesterday, so we are going back to his office this afternoon to hopefully have it removed.  I just don't think I can go into work with the drain tube still attached. 

I have so much work to do and it's killing me to be at home.  I need to get W-2s done and figure out the bosses' estimated tax payments.  Thankfully, the 15th is on a Saturday and Monday is a holiday, so their payments don't have to be postmarked until Tuesday. 

Haley also turns 10 on Tuesday and we are hoping to have a birthday party for her next weekend.  There is no way that I could have done a party tomorrow or Sunday, but she has been such a trooper.  When the doctor finally came out on Monday after 3 hours of surgery, Jason and Haley both started crying because they had been so worried.  Haley finally told Jason that they were happy tears because I was ok.  They have done a great job of taking care of me this week.  I hate having to ask for help, so it has been a trying week for all of us. 

Well, I better wrap this up and get in the shower.  Haley gets out of school early today, so we are going to go pick her up and then have lunch. We also need to pick up my paycheck and then head to Corpus Christi to the doctor's office.

Thank you again for all the prayers.  Hopefully, we only have good news from here on out.