A very long day.......or there and back again

My day started at 6:15 am when I officially got out of bed. I was up at 4:47 am (gotta love digital clocks) to pee. My roommate offered me a ride the night before saying that no one should have to take 2 trains and a bus to their breast cancer surgery. After discovering the driver's side door was frozen shut, we managed to get her in the car to start it (manual transmission) and between the two of us, managed to lock the keys in the running vehicle. YES, only me :-)
Screaming "PLAN B" I ran back upstairs and grabbed my cash from court the day before and caught a cab.

Arriving at Loyola at 7:20 am, I was taken to a room and forced to strip down to nothing. In exchange, I was given booties and two gowns. I was impressed that they had security come and inventory my few possessions (cash for cab, DL, book and reading glasses, and phone) and take custody of them.

My first trip was to the boob clinic to place the guide wire for the surgeon. I was taken in an ambulance, no lights and sirens (very heavy sigh) because the facilities were in another building. The guide wire is placed using mammograms to guide the doctor. Unlike the usual mammo, where they smash, tell you to freeze and then immediately let you go, you have to stand there until the wire is in place so the boobs were not only smashed, for like 15 minutes, they were actually bruised this time. The doctor was kind enough to autograph my boob and when the wire was placed, they covered it with a plastic dixie cup and taped it down. Asked if there was anything they could get me, my suggestion of coffee was met with laughter.

My next stop was to nuclear medicine where they were kind enough to inject radioactive dye around my nipple in 4 spots. It stung, hurt like hell, burned and was just plain rude to boot....LOL They wanted to take pictures of the dye traveling to the lymph nodes so they knew which ones to biopsy. It was funny that they asked me which boob was being worked on before proceeding. I said it was the one with the doctor's autograph and the plastic cup taped to it, he said he just wanted to be real sure they got the right one. REALLY?? I kept telling them that coffee would make the dye more faster. When, after an hour, the dye had traveled far enough, he was kind enough to initial it and have them put me in a wheel chair in the hall. You know where this is going, don't you?

After 25 minutes, I stopped two women in lab coats and asked them to check with the desk to see if they had any idea when I was going back to surgery. I let them know it was 11:45 and I was scheduled for surgery at 12:00. Someone finally came and got me and brought me back to the surgical wing. I was put into a room and told to wait until the anesthesia dude came to talk to me. Because of the dixie cup and the fact that the bed adjusted manually, I had to sit back in a chair and put my feet up on the bed until I could flag a nurse to adjust the bed and bring me a blanket. Those hospital gowns are NOT warm....LOL Asked if there was anything else she could get me, my request for coffee was met with a frown.

I was informed that I was #5 of 5 and that #3 was in the OR as we spoke. Because #4 was present in the hospital, I would likely go up to surgery around 2:00pm ish. Shortly thereafter, or as soon as the nurse got my bed adjusted and brought me a blanket, I was informed that #4 had passed out so I was next up. I was brought to pre-op, where I was quick to inform the nurse that I wanted coffee to the IV drip and to tell post op to have it ready when I woke up. She just laughed. The knock out dude (not gonna try and spell it again) quickly hooked me up to happy drugs and the next thing I knew, I was waking up feeling like I got hit by a bus. We were out of Loyola by 5:00 pm ish.

My sister Amy, God bless her, was there when I woke up and she helped me get dressed and procure my stuff from security. She was also able to procure a coke for me as I was tired and hungry. The one reallllly good thing was that I woke up sans the (lack of) coffee headache I had gone to sleep with. I was sent home with scripts for pain meds. Because my meds are covered by the VA, we had to drive next door to the VA. Unfortunately, the VA will not fill prescriptions from outside sources so our next stop was the ER, where I was asked to show them the bandages and then check in. We finally left the VA, vicodin in hand (the script was for Tylenol 3 w/codeine, I guess he felt he was doing me a favor) at about 7:30 pm ish.

Before we headed home, Amy was kind enough to take me to Portillo's for a juicy Italian beef w/sweet peppers and an order of cheese fries. ANY thoughts of nausea were overridden by the stomach's desire to eat. When I was a kid, my mom used to take me out for ice-cream after a doctor visit. As an adult, I get Portillo's :-)

We made it home about 8:45 pm ish and I was in jammies and in bed by 9:00. Mom called me right before I went to bed and I handed Amy the phone. I was wiped and out of it. Besides, they told Amy everything and me nothing.

This morning I was up at 7:45 am ish and I have to admit, I don't feel all that bad. My back hurts, from laying on it all day, my throat hurts when I swallow, from the tubes, and my right boob and armpit hate me. I am up, I am mobile and I find myself muttering, "Well, that wasn't so bad." After everything I have been through, it was nice to wake up feeling ok.