Despite at times feeling today would never arrive, it has of course and I have to admit the thought of going "under the knife" scares me silly.
Never having had an operation or even been in hospital, I don't have a clue what to expect - will I be sick, will I say silly things, will I loose control of bodily functions (as once happened when I was knocked unconscious falling off a horse on Dartmoor), will I be in pain. All I do know is I want Ian with me as long as possible.
We have to be at Medway Hospital for 07:00 with strict instructions not to eat or drink milk after 02:30 and not even water after 06:30.
Of course we allowed for heavy traffic (at 06:00 really ?) so were very early and POCU (Pre Operative Care Unit) wasn't even open so we hung around in the corridor. Finally we and numerous others in for all sorts of operations were admitted. I was 3rd (last) on God's list so not due into theatre until early afternoon but firstly I had to have a couple of other procedures in preparation.
My first visit was next door to the Nuclear Dept 😰 where I have a blue dye injected into my boob so that God can correctly identify my sentinel lymph nodes (the first line of defence in the lymphatic system for anything emanating from the boob including cancer). What a super place it was; comfy seats, TV, up-to-date magazines, even a coffee station with biscuits (great for Ian but of course I was Nil By Mouth!!!)
Yet again, the nurse was smashing and did her best to put me at my ease whilst she injected me with the blue dye, apparently my boob will go blue and my wee will be blue for a few days - makes a change from the beetroot effect I suppose. I had to wait around and massage the area for 10 mins or so to get everything moving, but I had a long wrap with me so could be discreet. Then I was taken off to lie in a very large machine which would check the dye had reached the required area. This room was freezing (to stop the massive machines overheating I suppose) and it seemed to take forever with the machine whirring around me from all sides and then finally the technologist pronounced all was good and drew on me with a green felt tip. Then her boss came in to confirm the drawings were in the right place.
Back to POCU where I'd missed the anaesthetist's morning round so one of the nurses kindly went off to check if I could have a cup of tea - hurrah, provided I drank it quickly, I was able to have a cup of black tea - nectar.
Then it was down to the Breast Care Unit for a wire to be inserted into my boob (as the tumour is non palpable God needs to know where to start cutting so basically follows the line of the wire). I wasn't overly looking forward to this bit and unfortunately a trainee was doing the job and took a long, long time to get the wire in the correct position (it's done looking at an ultrasound screen). She was being fully supervised and the two kept arguing about how it should be done. It didn't really hurt as I'd had a local but it was just the feeling of someone rummaging around. Once again I had to be drawn on, expect Boss Lady didn't like the markings Trainee was doing as she said they would confuse God so she drew on me too - we all had a good laugh as clearly they all enjoy doing some colouring first thing in the morning. Finally the 6" of wire left sticking out was taped down so it didn't snag on anything eeek!
Back to POCU and the first shift of bodies had gone to theatre so there was a room for Ian and I to sit and wait - and what a long wait it was, probably about 4 hours and during this time I managed to get more and more wound up at the thought of the general anaesthetic. But I was visited by both the anaesthetist and a junior member of God's team and both were so lovely and did their best to put me at my ease - but of course I cried a lot. A sweet little Filipino lady came and helped me put the anti embolism stockings on and finally about 13:00 my details were checked yet again and I was told to get into the gown as someone would be coming for me shortly.
Poor Kate (Assistant Anaesthetist), as soon as she walked into the room I burst into tears. Apparently the record for her as she hadn't even managed to introduce herself. She walked me down the corridors and eventually to Theatre 7 where I had to lie on the trolley whilst they prepared me. Everyone was so very lovely to me and made me chat away about nothing, just to take my mind of things and it worked - the next thing I remember was someone telling me to wake up and that I was in recovery.
I seemed to spend an age waking properly and dozing back off for a few minutes until someone woke me again. I have a vision of God (the Surgeon, not the real one 🙃) standing at the foot of the bed and telling me he'd got the whole thing out but it had been larger than expected - but was that just a dream?
I was absolutely busting for a wee and not just to see if it was blue. The nurse brought me a bedpan but as I was lying rather than sitting I found it impossible to "go" so gave up. Eventually the urge became just too strong and after sitting more upright I was able to and what a relief it was.
Patients are not discharged directly from the Recovery Ward but have to go via a day ward and we had been warned in POCU that there is often a very long wait for a bed, so you end up stuck in Recovery for hours. POCU had kindly offered though, if I wanted, they would have me back and discharge me from there - so when it looked like I was in for a long wait , I mentioned this. Back came the reply that as long as Ian could get there in 20 mins to collect me POCU would have me back, so bless his heart he drove like the clappers and was in time.
What a long day, we got home about 19:00 and before very long I was tucked up in bed, confident I'd sleep like a log.
Back to POCU where I'd missed the anaesthetist's morning round so one of the nurses kindly went off to check if I could have a cup of tea - hurrah, provided I drank it quickly, I was able to have a cup of black tea - nectar.
Then it was down to the Breast Care Unit for a wire to be inserted into my boob (as the tumour is non palpable God needs to know where to start cutting so basically follows the line of the wire). I wasn't overly looking forward to this bit and unfortunately a trainee was doing the job and took a long, long time to get the wire in the correct position (it's done looking at an ultrasound screen). She was being fully supervised and the two kept arguing about how it should be done. It didn't really hurt as I'd had a local but it was just the feeling of someone rummaging around. Once again I had to be drawn on, expect Boss Lady didn't like the markings Trainee was doing as she said they would confuse God so she drew on me too - we all had a good laugh as clearly they all enjoy doing some colouring first thing in the morning. Finally the 6" of wire left sticking out was taped down so it didn't snag on anything eeek!
Back to POCU and the first shift of bodies had gone to theatre so there was a room for Ian and I to sit and wait - and what a long wait it was, probably about 4 hours and during this time I managed to get more and more wound up at the thought of the general anaesthetic. But I was visited by both the anaesthetist and a junior member of God's team and both were so lovely and did their best to put me at my ease - but of course I cried a lot. A sweet little Filipino lady came and helped me put the anti embolism stockings on and finally about 13:00 my details were checked yet again and I was told to get into the gown as someone would be coming for me shortly.
Poor Kate (Assistant Anaesthetist), as soon as she walked into the room I burst into tears. Apparently the record for her as she hadn't even managed to introduce herself. She walked me down the corridors and eventually to Theatre 7 where I had to lie on the trolley whilst they prepared me. Everyone was so very lovely to me and made me chat away about nothing, just to take my mind of things and it worked - the next thing I remember was someone telling me to wake up and that I was in recovery.
I seemed to spend an age waking properly and dozing back off for a few minutes until someone woke me again. I have a vision of God (the Surgeon, not the real one 🙃) standing at the foot of the bed and telling me he'd got the whole thing out but it had been larger than expected - but was that just a dream?
I was absolutely busting for a wee and not just to see if it was blue. The nurse brought me a bedpan but as I was lying rather than sitting I found it impossible to "go" so gave up. Eventually the urge became just too strong and after sitting more upright I was able to and what a relief it was.
Patients are not discharged directly from the Recovery Ward but have to go via a day ward and we had been warned in POCU that there is often a very long wait for a bed, so you end up stuck in Recovery for hours. POCU had kindly offered though, if I wanted, they would have me back and discharge me from there - so when it looked like I was in for a long wait , I mentioned this. Back came the reply that as long as Ian could get there in 20 mins to collect me POCU would have me back, so bless his heart he drove like the clappers and was in time.
What a long day, we got home about 19:00 and before very long I was tucked up in bed, confident I'd sleep like a log.
