The Journey Begins

I am a Smurf!  Who new you could surgically become a Smurf?  And I thought I was going in for a lumpectomy on Feb 2nd.    


The morning started out at o’dark thirty and my sister picking me up.  We arrived at Pennsylvania Hospital early which was fortuitous.  After I checked into admissions the computers went down and there was a backup in the process.  Luckily, I sailed through without a hitch.  As someone pointed out to me, it was Groundhogs Day, which was supposed to mean good luck for me.   I went in on time, and all the people I encountered were tremendous.  But it was a good thing I did not have a watch and there were no clocks because there was a lot of waiting time before I went into surgery.  You quickly lose track of time in a hospital. 


One of the steps to the process is injecting blue dye to identify the lymph nodes that are likely to be engaged with the tumor.  Those Lymph nodes are removed and biopsied as well as more testing on the tumor that is removed.  According to my sister I was in surgery for 2 hours.  I came to about 1pm and felt like one of the drunk frat house dogs.  I could not find my words, had trouble remembering things, and was walking on a slant.  One of my sister’s first observations was that I looked gray.  It turned out it was the blue dye showing through my skin, and I was told I will be expelling the dye for the next two weeks.  When we finally took the bandages off before bed, I found that my boob was neon blue.  It is official, I am of the Smurf class. 


We arrived home around 3:30pm.  My sister very kindly made me dinner, homemade pizza, and it was yummy.  I am thinking I need to milk this for all I can this year, because there is most definitely an expiration date. 

I was disappointed to learn that my desire for a boob reduction was not quite what I anticipated; they did not take enough and only on one side so I am lopsided, LOL.  On a more serious note, larger breasted women are more apt to have breast cancer because there is more fatty tissue available for the tumors to grow, who new. 


We had a relaxing night watching comedies and went to bed.  I only needed one Tylenol late that night.  I have had no pain at the incision points or where the tumor was removed.  I only have muscle soreness which I can work through with movement.  I likely will not drive until I feel I have full movement and can make quick moves without pain or fear of opening the incisions.  It is only day 2 after surgery and I have a lot of mobility back, as well as very little muscle soreness, and I have not taken more Tylenol.  The incisions are still ugly, but already showing signs of healing.  Here’s to looking to the next step and that it is as uneventful as the first step has been.