It was the morning of surgery. We got up at 0 dark thirty (seriously, 0400 - that's 4:00 in the blessed morning for you non-military time folks!) and headed to Walter Reed, Will & I in 1 car and my mom & dad in theirs. My report time was 0600. The actual time of the surgery wasn't known but the first procedure (dye injection) was supposed to happen at 0700, and the surgery somewhere around an hour later.
The wait time was borderline miserable for all of us. We were in an overcrowded, 60 degree pre-op waiting room. I expected the O.R. to be cold but the waiting room?! The staff was sympathetic though and brought us all blankets. My sister Alisa met us at the hospital after she had gotten Coley off to day care. I was SO very fortunate to be surrounded by so many people that love me (here after referred to as my entourage!), and I knew that so many more people were with us in thought and prayer.
Close to 7:00 my trial nurse (Angie) brought me the magic cream I had agreed to "test". The purpose of the cream was to numb the injection site where the radioactive die would be placed for the lymph node trace. It was a 50/50 chance whether the cream was an actual numbing agent or a placebo but I was sure mine was the real deal. Even it it wasn't, I refused to think otherwise. I convinced myself that one way or the other, even if it was only because of the power of positive thinking, I wasn't going to feel that needle. After about 20-30 more minutes Angie came for me again and escorted us all down to Nuclear Medicine. It was comforting that she stayed with me the entire time and allowed my family to go everywhere with me.
Up to that point I really hadn't been very nervous, although I don't think I can say that for Mom, ;0) but when I entered the room and they paged my surgeon I literally felt my heart rate increase. I told her I thought that the injection would be the worst part of the day at that I was happy to be getting it done & over with. Honestly, it really wasn't as bad as I had feared. Yes, it was definitely uncomfortable, but it wasn't excruciating. I truly believe that a lot of that had to do with the cream. How else could that not be terribly painful? Angie said I didn't even flinch!
The injection itself took a few minutes. Once the injection was complete I was placed in a scanner/mri for about a minute and then went back to the waiting room to greet my entourage. Seriously, they all looked so much more fearful than they needed to be and I wished they had known just how o.k. I was.
Within minutes I could feel the warmth of the dye start to run through the left side of my chest and up towards my neck and arm. I had heard from a couple of women who had the procedure done just how painful it was and I was surprised that I found it to be merely uncomfortable, again not unbearable. There were a few minutes of stinging & burning over the next 15 minutes or so but it came and went pretty quickly, never lasting more than a few minutes at a time.
Angie came back for the 3rd time, this time to place me on my gurney and take us all to the operating room/waiting area. I was ready to get this done! Enough of the waiting already! They allowed 2 people at a time to sit with me in the prep area. Mom & Dad took the first shift while Will & Alisa went to the new (but not improved) waiting room. There was so much action happening in that little area with all the staff & equipment. There were 3 or 4 separate conversations occurring at any given moment. Patient after patient lay behind each curtain, all with their own team. Everybody was moving so quickly and efficiently that I thought I might be put to sleep without being able to say "goodnight" to everyone or even give Will a chance to come back. I must have asked the anestethiologist 3 times if they would give me plenty of notice before knocking me out and wheeling me away.
I opted for a spinal block and also agreed to have additional blood taken for trials so that added to the already busy prep. Within a few minutes of being on the gurney in the midst of the chaos I asked my dad to trade places with Will, just in case they really didn't give me enough notice. That was what I was concerned about most! Will came back and he & my mom watched every move the staff made. I won't get too graphic but around the time the I.V. was being inserted I could tell I was doing much better than my mom. When they started marking my spine for placement of the block injections I knew it would be best to do the hug and kiss thing sooner rather than later (partiularly for Will & mom, o.k., mostly for mom ;0).
My bartender (anesthesiologist) was ready to serve me the first of my 2 margaritta cocktails. He offered me 4 but I let him know I was a light weight and that after 4 I would surely wake up with a headache and sick to my stomach! I also asked him to use only the best ingredients. ;0) Almost the very moment he added the 2nd one in my I.V, while still sitting up I was out! I don't even have the faintest memory of receiving any injections.
The surgery took longer than anticipated (What a surprise! this is ME we're talking about!) because they had a tough time capturing my tiny and elusive sentinal lymph node (the one the dye had flowed to the first). After about 3 hours I was wheeled into recovery, having hopefully left all the cancer in the O.R
