Today I met with the pre-op admitting at San Ramon Regional. Nothing real exciting other then the nurse showed me what the drain tubes look like, what the drainage vessels look like, and showed how they are drained-yuck! She also showed me a pain dispensing fanny pack I will wear for the first week. It will automatically dispense pain medicine. It will be hooked up to me by a tube into my surgical area. This is to help with me not using pain medicines but rather providing pain relief directly to the site. Kinda weird thinking I have tubes leading to inside my body. I will have to use extreme caution so as not to transfer bacteria into these tubes when I drain the vessels. This should all be in place up to 5-7 days after my surgery so I am aiming to have them taken out by the end of next week...cross my fingers.
I have started getting the house and kids on autopilot. Sign ups complete, bought the essentials for a household of 4 kids; toilet paper, paper towels, paper plates, and to make sure the animals don't starve, dog/cat food. I have also purchased a few clothing items to help...do you know how difficult it is to find clothing that opens in the front, that is loose, and doesn't look like something my mother would wear? Let me assure you, it is hard to find. I also need to find a support bra to wear after the bandages come off. It needs to have no underwire and must open in the front. This is proving to be very difficult to find-who knew?
Tomorrow I meet with my reconstruction surgeon for our magic marker session. I have scheduled a hair appt after to wash my hair and probably will do this again a few days after the surgery since I can not get my upper body wet. I'll pack up my overnight bag for my trip to the hospital tomorrow. The gal at check in said just pretend your going away for the weekend....I have a feeling I should probably leave my negligee and scented candle at home? Check in is at 6:00am Thursday, Surgery to start at 7:30am. Finish 6 hours later.
So, the count down begins.
Keep me company as I travel thru my journey facing breast cancer again.
Why would anyone want to read about someone else's problem when you have plenty of your own? Maybe one day a loved one, a friend, or you will be diagnosed with breast cancer. My blog might offer insite into cancer resources, thoughts, questions to ask, or guidance in helping you deal with this disease. These are my experiences and suggestions. Every breast cancer is different. If you are touched by breast cancer, be sure to consult your Dr. for direction in treatment.
I equate my blog to the emergency evacuation instruction the flight attendants do before you take off on an airplane. Nobody pays attention to them but when your plane is about to crash you think, "sh*t, why didn't I pay more attention to them? Which color cord do I pull first again?" We have so many things going on in our lives that one more thing to dwell on that doesn't apply to us right now may not be important but when it does, we wish we would have paid attention.
My blog is something you might read a couple times or maybe follow. Hopefully you gain some knowledge about breast cancer, in particular, Invasive Lobular Carcinoma (ILC). It is the 2nd most common type of invasive breast cancer however it only accounts for approx. 10% of all invasive breast cancers. It is the silent breast cancer. It is generally not detected with a mammo but rather an ultrasound. Invasive Lobular Carcinoma (ILC) is what I have been diagnosed with. My suggestion to every woman who is of mammo age insist on an ultrasound with your mammos.
UPDATE 3/2011
I have had my bilaterial mastectomy and I am recovering. ILC is a sneaky cancer as I said above. My various Dr.'s here and at UCSF confirmed the size of my tumor should be between 2.5cm-3.5cm with possibilty but not most likely, 7cm. After my surgery, my tumor was confirmed to be 11cm. My Dr.'s are very knowledgeable and are on top of things. This is simply the truth about ILC. I had mammos every 6 months, ultra sounds, and MRI's. With all of these, it was not picked up until 1/2011. The good news, if you can call it that, only 1 sentinel node out of 2 has micromastic findings and 5 aux. nodes were negative.
Be sure to start my adventure from the blog history on the right. I have tried to bold points to make it easier to extract the important information. If there is anything you get out of this blog, refer to my Dr.'s listed below if you know someone who has been diagnosed with breast cancer in the East Bay. These Dr.'s; Dr. Gottlieb, Dr. Wotowic, and Dr. Sherman are my 3 musketeers....all for 1 and 1 for all!
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