Surgery

The wait was over, it was time. Day of surgery came and we had to be at the hospital around 5 a.m. – no coffee, no water, no nothing. Check-in, wait. Pee in a cup, wait. Change out of your clothes, wait. Get and IV started, wait…

Then all of a sudden there were about 10 people in the room preparing you all at the same time. Surgeon #1 (Dr. Moline) oncology surgeon went over the procedure, had me sign consent forms, and boom done. Next up- surgeon #2 (Dr. Oliver Allen) plastic surgeon doing the second half of the surgery (reconstruction) went over the procedure, sign consent forms and marked me up with sharpie. Done. Aright next up- radiologist who came in to inject a radioactive dye into my right breast to illuminate lymph nodes for my sentinel lymph node biopsy (first lymph node or group of nodes that cancer cells are most likely to spread to from a primary tumor). They remove these lymph nodes and test them along with the breast tissue to make sure there is no remaining cancer cells left. The radiologist injects the radioactive material straight into the breast. I mean, they inject a little numbing stuff in first but then straight into the nipple they go with a needle for the rest. Not super comfortable. Nurses pop in and out in between other staff members, “take this pill, put this on, take this off.” Alright, now time for anesthesiologist. “I’m going to give you some light sedation and then some local anesthetic to help with nerve pain when you wake up.” Ok great, I’m sitting at the edge of the hospital bed getting injected with “light sedation” and well that’s all I remember until… I wake up.