Still deciding...

...if the pain's worth it. I had my port out on Thursday. What an ordeal!! Here's what happened:

My original surgery time was scheduled for 12:45. I was to be there an hour before. Now...the other two times I've been there, they've called and told me to come earlier due to cancellations. So when the phone rang at about 9:30, I knew what to expect. But I was wrong. My surgeon, Dr. P, had an emercency surgery and was running behind. The nurse told me I could wait it out or reschedule. I told her I'd just wait it out...I had already taken off of work. I was to call back around 12 and in the meantime, call Dr. P's office to see when the soonest I could reschedule would be, just in case. She said she was sorry, but thanked me for being kind (she said I was the first one!) I called Dr. P's office and was told the soonest would be Friday.

At around noon, the phone rang again...Dr. P was back in and the surgery was on! I needed to be there at 2. This was good news for me. As you know, I was having a hard time with this surgery anyway and had psyched myself up to have it Thursday. I was dreading having to postpone it by a day. So Matt and I get there at 2, sign lots of paperwork, and I wait to be called back. In the meantime, Mom gets off work and meets us there. Pam, my prep nurse, calls me back and Matt comes with me. I change into my gown and hop into bed. I'm asked to sign and initial more papers, such as do I have a living will, in the case of needing a blood transfusion should they do it and is it okay to have students and technical people back there to observe. I initial and sign all of them, even the students. I'll be asleep, what do I care? Then I get my IV and am prepped for surgery. Then I wait. There are people ahead of me and I'm told it'll be about 45 minutes or so. Here are some pictures:

Waiting...

Bored

My IV

Now during this time, Dr. P comes by to say hi, I meet my surgical nurse, Matt, and my anthesiologist. Matt, the nurse, hangs out with us awhile and tells me the details of the surgery. And now the bad news...I can't keep the port. Apparently anything they pull out of you is considered a foreign object and has to be sent off to the pathologist. He promises to save it so I can see it after surgery. Mom comes back for a while now, too. We're the last ones and there's no one else back in the preop room. Finally it's my turn. I say my goodbyes and Nurse Matt wheels me off to surgery. I get some good drugs and fall fast asleep.

I wake up in recovery shaking uncontrollably, thanks to the anesthesia wearing off. Matt and Mom are back there waiting. Nurse Matt shows off the port, which he didn't have a chance to clean. Cool. :) Finally, I'm awake enough to get dressed and go home.

My port!!!

Nurse Matt showing me the port

I'm starting to love my surgery place. I had the exact same team as when I got the port in. I was told that was unusual. AND...the compliments from these people flowed. When I was getting radiation, I received lots o' compliments. I think these people are paid extra to make you feel special. Here are some of the compliments from my surgery...from Nurse Pam--I have a beautiful smile; from Nurse Matt--when I passed your bed, I could've sworn you were a teenager. You're not pulling off your age very well; from another random nurse--your haircut is so cute! (I told her it was longer before my diagnosis, which got us talking about cancer and how I didn't lose my hair...so then she says...) Well, you have such a beautiful face, you could pull off being bald! So let's see...what else can I have surgery on?? :)

So here's how I'm feeling now. It's been a couple of days. The pain meds didn't seem to work quite as well. When I take Vicodin, it makes my neck and jaw hurt to the touch. So I'm off of those and on to plain Tylenol. I took the bandage off. It was bleeding a little when I got home on Thursday...I think that happened when I was trying to put a shirt on. And now we wait for the healing. I did feel it a little above the bandage...it's hard to feel it without feeling the tube running up my skin. Strange.

Anyhow...sorry the major long post. Lots of new surgery pics posted under the surgery album. Check them out, if it doesn't gross you out. There's some of my port before it was taken out, too.

Thanks for reading. :) Off to sleep now...