I arrived home with pain meds in hand, drainage tubes pinned to my camisole, and an abdominal binder to provide support to my weakened core. The recliner chair in our sunroom was calling my name and I gladly settled there with a number of pillows to prop me up, some comfy blankets to keep me warm, and 2 small tables full of anything I might have needed within an arm’s reach.
Little did I know that that is where I would be sleeping for the next month.
Having surgery on my abdomen, made me feel pretty taut and hunched over. The thought of laying down flat in a bed did not appeal to me one bit, so I spent my days AND nights in that comfy recliner chair. (Have you ever tried to sit up in bed or get out of bed for that matter, without using your abdomen muscles? You should try it sometime..you’ll find it’s pretty much impossible to do unless you practically roll off the bed…which I don’t recommend. *smile*)
For the first week that I was home I had lots of visitors and help. People brought food, goody baskets full of gifts and thoughtful notes to brighten my day. My dear college friends even spent a number of hours helping me clean, prep meals, do laundry and whatever else I needed done. I felt (and still do feel) very blessed to have such wonderful people in my life!
My days consisted of sleeping quite a bit and trying to keep on top of what meds I needed to take and when. I also had a number of drainage tubes that needed to be emptied and recorded twice daily. For those of you that are not sure what drainage tubes are….they are commonly used after surgery to help relieve fluid build-up. In order to avoid complications and infection, the tubes are inserted into the surgical area and they are connected to a plastic bulb on the outside of your body that acts as a drain. Once the output of the drain is down to a small amount, they may be removed by your surgeon.
Besides having help to empty my drainage tubes each day, it also seemed to be quite the production to just get a shower in. In order for me not to feel added pressure at the tubal incision areas (from the weight of the drains just freely hanging there), I had to wear a ribbon necklace to safety pin them to as I showered. Once out of the shower, I needed to apply Aquafor (a healing ointment) to all of my incision sites, put on my camisole and abdominal binder and then reattach my drainage tubes with safety pins. By the time I was all clean and dressed…I was ready for a nap!
My drainage tubes were removed after about a week’s time, but my abdomen still seemed pretty swollen. About 2 days after the tubes were removed, I had an appointment with my Oncologist for a checkup and my tri-weekly Herceptin treatment. When I got undressed for my check-up, I noticed that my abdmonen incision was leaking all over the camisole I was wearing. My Oncologist seemed concerned about the possibility of an infection and she encouraged me to get it looked at by my surgeon.
After a call to the surgeon’s nurse, she had me come in that afternoon. The surgeon was off that day, but the nurse bandaged it up, gave me a prescription for an antibiotic and told me to come back the following week to have it looked at.
When I came back in the following week, the surgeon decided to aspirate my abdomen with a big needle to collect fluid to send away to the lab for review. Although my abdomen still felt numb from surgery, the idea of her using that big needle made me kind of nauseous. L Thankfully it was over with shortly and we received good news from the lab….NO infection! Hooray! The doctor encouraged me wear extra bandages until the leaking subsided (which didn’t happen for a couple of weeks). (Note to self: extra bandages will be needed when drinking wine and laughing with friends! HA! That’s what I get when I go for a scrapbooking weekend away with good friends! Good thing I brought along an extra camisole to wear.)
So, what do you think the first question was that I asked my surgeon at my checkup? You got it! When can I play volleyball? J The answer to my question was that I needed wait a while to heal (and jumping and diving were probably not the best things to be doing too soon in my recovery). Originally, I didn’t think that I would be able to play ball until the beginning of February (about 12 weeks out from surgery), but I was pleasantly surprised when she gave me the green light to start playing in mid January! Woohoo!
Getting out on the court was fun, but I knew I had a lot of work to do! I was overweight, had no core strength to speak of and I had to get used to a new distribution of weight AGAIN (having a chest, having no chest, having a chest….it’s all about balance and getting used to your center of gravity).
It took weeks, and a number of workouts (cardio/weights) for me to feel close to normal back out on the court again…and boy does it feel GREAT! Every time I play volleyball I am in such a HAPPY place. I am so thankful to not be held back by the effects of chemo, radiation, and surgery anymore!! I promise to not ever take that for granted again…
Other things that have been happening in 2014?
-
Well,
on Valentine’s Day I went in for my 3 month check-up with my Oncologist and she
noticed a hard mass above my left breast. She told me she thought I should have
an ultrasound done THAT day. *instant tears* WHAT???? That doesn’t sound good
at all. L My
anxiety level went through the roof as I contemplated what the weight of that
statement really meant. Please God don’t let it be cancer…please, please,
please!!
It
was a long afternoon as I waited to have an ultrasound done on my chest, but it
became even longer when the doctor reading my results thought that we should do
a CT scan as well, just in case. WHAT??? More tests?? That doesn’t make me feel
very good. I am sure you can imagine the prayers I kept repeating over and over
again in my head. I needed strength to get through this and that was the only
way I knew how to find it. After an emotional afternoon, I finally received a
call from my doctor saying that it was NOT CANCER! Since cancer was not
detected, they believe the hard mass was just scar tissue left over from my surgery.
R-E-L-I-E-F. Just another reminder that you need to embrace life each and every
day!
-
Next
up….Good Friday. Again, back at the doctor for my tri-weekly Herceptin
treatment. This time, the machine taking my blood pressure, says my heart rate
is low. It seems pretty low to the nurse, so she says she would like to take it
manually. Still lower than it has been in the past…this doesn’t seem right, so
she puts a call in to my doctor. Doctor thinks I should have an EKG and an
Echocardiogram done on my heart THAT day. AGAIN? I think I might need to have a
glass of wine before going in next time. These extra “same-day” tests are kinda
stressing me out!
Herceptin
is known to cause damage to people’s hearts, so I have been getting an
Echocardiogram every 3 months for the past year and everything has been fine.
Now I am nervous! Good news is that they couldn’t find anything wrong with my
heart. They think that the lower heart rate may be a result of me working out
more than I have in a very long time. That’s it? THANKFUL once again!
-
May
Day! It looks like I have a little theme going on here….holidays are a good way
to keep track of dates anyways. J So what is going on tomorrow, you might ask? Well…it is my last surgery. It won’t be anything like my surgery in
November…this one will be about 3 hours long and I will get to go home
afterwards. What am I having done this time? Well, my plastic surgeon will be
evening out the work she did in November. She will be smoothing out the sides
of my abdomen since they seem out of proportion with the front of my abdomen and she will be resizing my left breast to
match my right breast. (She originally made my left breast bigger, since that
is the side I had radiation on. Skin behaves differently once it is radiated,
so she wanted to let it settle before she reshaped it to match the other side.)
Since I was going to be under anyways, I asked her to remove my port as well. I only have one more Herceptin treatment left, but I will just have to have it given to me
in my arm instead.
I am sorry that my last two posts have been quite lengthy. I guess that happens when you don’t blog for 4 months! (Shame on me, I know!) I wanted to get you updated on where I have been since the last time I wrote and I guess I had A LOT to say!
Here are some more pictures to share….
I hope to write another update after surgery sometime!
Love to all,
Nae
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