Surgery Day!!

Feb 22, 2018

Been a few days since I’ve written but there’s a good reason why I haven’t but I can’t tell you right now. I will say it will be a good surprise to all of you ….at least I hope it will be a good one! I’ve been very busy working on something very special!! And…still haven’t felt the greatest.

Two days ago, Feb. 20th, I had my surgery. I had a double mastectomy and this is why. My breast cancer had spread into my breast tissue and into two of my lymph nodes. When I was first diagnosed with breast cancer they saw something suspicious on my left breast and did some texts on it as well but came back and told me it was nothing to worry about. When I got my last MRI a couple weeks ago, the nurse said both breast showed clear for no cancer and that even the stuff on the other breast that was suspicious was clear. That made me feel as if the suspicious stuff on that breast was cancer cells and the chemo killed that as well.?? I could be wrong but that’s how I took it. I had the BRCA test done months ago and it showed that my cancer was not genetic or hereditary but… my aunt had breast cancer years ago and her precious granddaughter passed away from breast cancer of the last year, she was only 39.
These are the reasons why I chose this type of surgery. Every woman is different, every cancer is different so woman’s choices may be different and there’s no right or wrong on whatever surgery a woman decides on. I just felt I had too many things going against me and didn’t feel safe doing the Lumpectomy.

Day of surgery Feb 20th, 2018,

My surgery was about 3 hours long and I was scared to death to be put under!!
I’ve had 3 surgery’s in my life time and have never been put under all the way.
I broke my finger years ago and I severed every nerve and bone…my finger was hanging on my the skin. I asked them to numb my finger and give me happy drugs instead of being put completely out with a tube in my throat. Again I did the same when I broke my wrist playing softball and then again when I had my port put in for Chemo last year. I’ve always been afraid because I felt like it would damage my vocal chords or that I wouldn’t wake up for some reason. This time I didn’t have a choice, I had to be completely put under so I had to toughen up!

My friend and I got up at 5:45am to make it to the hospital by 7:30am. That’s when they asked us to be there. We sat there and did nothing until 9:00am. My surgery was scheduled for 11am…not quite sure why they had me get there 3.5 early but we were frustrated…we could have slept in a little longer.
They finally called my name a little after 9am. They took me upstairs to the 7th floor where I would have my surgery. We sat there in the waiting room for about 10 minutes then they called my name to come back to get ready for surgery.
As I got undressed, I was getting more and more nervous about getting put under. When I finished, I sat down on the bed and thought about my life and how lucky I have been. I also thought..”was this it?” “am I going to wake up or not?”
then I sad a little prayer.

They brought my family and friend back to see me just before surgery. They were with me for about 10 minutes or so as we waited on my doctor to arrive. I had my friend pray for me while they were all back there. I was very sad saying goodbye to them because I wasn’t sure I’d wake up. I think most people feel that way at least a little. My dad was crying and he said I looked like I did when I was a little girl. Funny because I felt like that little girl….holding his hand, scared and him reassuring me that I would be ok and that God would take care of me.

When my family and friend left I thought of Connie Smith and how she told me on the phone the night before to take Jesus in with me and to come out with him and that’s what I did. Connie Smith is like country music royalty and how lucky was I that she called me to pray with me and she even sang a few chorus’s! I’ve only known Connie on a personal level for a little over two years now. Over the years I had met her briefly a couple of times at the Opry. She barley knew me and didn’t know my momma at all. Connie had always been one of my mommas favorite singers. So when my momma was in the coma in 2015, I asked the general manager at the Opry if he could contact Connie to come pray with my momma. Within 3 minutes he contacted me back and asked what day I wanted her to come that she wanted to pray for my momma. A couple days later Connie came to the hospital to pray. She stayed for over two hours praying, singing and telling stories of her life to me and my momma. While she talked I realized just how much she was like my momma. It was very weird. They seemed just a like from her faith in God, her spirit, her softness. It was as if God sent Connie to me at just the right time in my life. Though my momma passed away 6 months later, I know she heard Connie that day and I will always be grateful for what she did. I will always cherish that day and since that day Connie and I have bonded in a strong friendship and she will never know how much I love her.

So like Connie said, I took Jesus in with me and brought him out with me. I prayed a lot before they gave me the anesthesia meds. I remember them giving me a shot that had dye in it that would help the doctor find the marker in my lymph node so he could remove it for testing. I remember them taking me to the surgery room and transferring me to another bed but I don’t remember anything after that.

I was in surgery for 3 hours and in the recovery room for 2 hours as I slept.
During surgery, my breast surgeon removed my breast tissue in both breasts. The plastic surgeon was there waiting on his turn. As soon as my breast surgeon removed the breast tissue the plastic surgeon came in and put it the expanders in and sewed me up. The expanders are what they use to stretch your skin. Every week I will go to the plastic surgeons office and they will fill the expanders. Once we have reach the correct size (what I was before) they will stop filling them up. I will heal, then have the final surgery. That will probably happened in 2-3 months. Takes a long time to heal from this.

They brought me to my room where my dad, brothers and friends were there waiting on me. They had gotten worried because the doctors said I would be in the recovery room for about 45 minutes but I stayed a sleep for 2 hours..I guess i was really tired ha ha. I will say it was the best sleep I had every had!

I was very happy when I woke up and saw my friends and family.
They all said the surgery went well and that the surgeon only removed the one lymph node that had had cancer in it when I was first diagnosed. He thought that lymph node looked clean so he didn’t take any more lymph nodes out which is great!! They will send that lymph node out to be tested. Results should be in within 10 days. Please pray there was no cancer in it. If there is no cancer I will NOT need radiation!

After my family left I ate dinner another friend Patti stopped in and brought me flowers. Some of my best friends were with me that day at the hospital along with my family. Sure makes you feel a lot better to be around people you love when you are having surgery. I am so blessed with loving people in my life.

I was pretty drugged up from the pain meds for that night and slept ok but you know the nurses wake you up every two hours for something.

The next morning the doctor came in and looked at every thing and gave me my release papers! I was shocked that he thought I could go home so soon. Just before I was going to leave a nurse took my temperature and I was running a low grade fever. This bummed me out because I thought I would have to stay in the hospital now. She called the doctor and he said that was common after surgery and that I was ok to go home unless it reached to 101.1
So around 11:30am my temp went back down and I was able to leave the hospital and go home with my friend who has been my care taker all along.
Another friend of mine who came in from NY was at my home to help us for the week. So very nice of her to do that! I really can’t do anything on my own and need both of them to help move me around in an out of the bed or couch. My one friend is leaving on Friday, tomorrow:)
I am very very sore but so happy to be home. The Doctor said I will probably feel really sore for a few days to take it easy and not do anything. Well I can’t anyway lol! I guess they removed some of my muscles and then reattached them over my expanders. That’s one reason why I’m so sore. The therapist gave me exercises to do to help pull my muscles back into place when I feel strong enough to do them.

I have these odd drain tubes…4 of them. 2 on each side. They are long tubes that’s actually going into my body. The extra blood and fluid from the surgery drain into the tubes and the tubes empty into these 4 plastic things at the ends of them and we have to empty those plastic things once we write down how much was in them. I’m calling them my grenade’s lol because that’s what the plastic things look like. You have to drain them every 4 hours. The less you move around the less fluid you build which means the less drainage you will have and typically you can get them removed sooner if you aren’t filling them very much. If they stay the way they’ve been with little fluid I may get to have 1 or 2 of them removed next week. They are a bit of a nuisance I must say. My entire chest area is very very sore and I can’t really do anything on my own so my friend is having to do the drains for me. I have a few custom tops to wear that you have to have as well. These tops have 2 pockets on each side that holds these plastic grenade looking things. This part really sucks because I hate not being independent but hopefully it will only be this way a couple weeks. I’m in constant pain and sometimes it get’s worse. Thank God for pain meds for sure!!

My friends put pillows all around me in bed to keep me propped up. Laying down would not be a good idea. It’s hard enough for them to get me up from a sitting position let on laying down. I ordered a large bed pillow but it hasn’t been delivered yet so we are making our own out of pillows.
I’ve manage to sleep ok on and off though it hurts with every move I make. I will say this, my neuropathy in my feet has diminished to almost nothing! Not sure why…?? Either it’s from taking pain meds or it’s because they put compression socks on me for surgery. I’m afraid to take them off because I don’t want my neuropathy to come back! I really could not deal with that pain on top of my chest pain right now.
I hope it’s just going away on it’s own now!

I want to say a A BIG thank you to all the doctors, nurses and staff for doing such a great job so far. I’m super happy to finally have this part over with and now will start this new chapter in my journey to heal. I’m going to ask you all to please continue to pray for me throughout this whole process. I’m in a lot of pain but right now I’d like to say I’m cancer free so I’m ok and will out up with the pain for now!!! Thanking God for a successful surgery and thanking all of you who have prayed and continue too.