It's been awhile, but I'm checking in again from Short Stay. A short reminder about why I'm here with Rory ...
Her breast cancer is the type that needs estrogen to stay alive. She's been on a drug that is supposed to keep the cells from latching onto the estrogen in her body, and another to try to suppress the creation of estrogen. The main source of estrogen is the ovaries, but it's also made in other places like some organs and even in muscles. To really shut down the major estrogen production, they decided to have her ovaries and tubes removed.
Fortunately they can now do that procedure laproscopically, meaning she'll have three little holes: one for the camera, one for the air hose (yes, the air hose) and one for the basket to remove and retrieve those bits and pieces. For most people it's an out-patient procedure with very little to no restriction in daily activities even the day of surgery, so we're hoping to be home by lunchtime.
Something new was that I was told to "gown up" while waiting for her. Had a lovely yellow paper gown with sleeves down to thumb holes, plus gloves. I only got to sport that getup for a few minutes, as the nurse came in and said we had the "all-clear." Apparently because of her recent infections there was some sort of flag that had them concerned enough to take extra precautions, but the "infectious nurse" changed her mind and cleared me to take it off. So I was only "special" for a few minutes.
Even before signing anything they had an EKG done. Lots of conversations about allergies and meds; they finally have stopped trying to write down all that information on her bracelet, and now they just write "See Chart."
They listened to Rory's "suggestion" that the IV team be called to get her line started, rather than letting the floor nurses give it a try. Who walks in to start the IV? Sally. She's some sort of head IV team coordinator, and has been called in for past attempts after nurses had used up their allocations. In the past she has come with a little portable ultrasound machine to try to locate veins, but this time it was just her. She and Rory had quite the conversation about previous surgeries, reminiscing about everyone's friend Jill Tharp, family vacation, etc. Even with all of those "good thoughts" it still took Sally two tries to get the IV started, but it was "only" two tries this time!
They do an antiseptic swab of the inside of the nose now, which was new for us. They had Rory do her own abdominal wipe-down with antiseptic wipes. We met the surgeon (her preferred surgeon ended up with a family emergency today, but the team decided it was best to go ahead with this procedure anyway), new anesthesiologist, and new nurses. Everyone has been great, patient, understanding.
So by 7:30 they rolled her away, and I'm in the waiting room. The procedure is supposed to be about an hour (hopefully less) and then we'll see how long it takes for her to wake up. More to come when there's anything to share ...
Just talked to the surgeon. Ovaries looked normal, no problems. While they were in there she found two more little "nodules" that they went ahead and took out as well, and will send over to pathology. She didn't think it looked bad or cancerous or anything, but figured it was better to grab those while they were already in there and then we can find out for sure. Expecting another hour or so (probably longer based on her history) before she will be out of the recovery room and hopefully waking up.
ReplyDeleteIt's 2pm and Rory has been awake and eaten a little bit, but one of the incisions is really giving her a hard time. Trying different positions in the bed, pillow locations, ice packs, and meds. Hopefully it won't be too much longer before we are heading home.
ReplyDeleteWell, it's almost 5pm and we're still here. The largest of the incision sites got a deep internal stitch at the end of the procedure, and that side has been bugging her beyond what the drugs seem to be able to control. On top of that, Rory's having repeated sneezing fits which obviously doesn't help anything. Sounds like the plan is to have an ultrasound done at that site to make sure there isn't any fluid building up (in which case she'd be back in the OR to have it drained and the stitch probably re-done), and we'll be staying here at the hospital until she is able to manage the pain on her own. They have tried doubling the dilaudid dosage and ran a full 1000mg of high-grade Tylenol; apparently that isn't enough quite yet.
ReplyDeleteThings never cleared up so they admitted Rory to the main hospital. They did an ultrasound of the stitch site and didn't find any hematoma (which is a good thing) but it's still so bad that the surgeon wants to go back in, cut the stitch, and re-do it. That decision was made 2 minutes after she had just started eating some French toast, so at first we thought surgery was going to have to wait until the morning. However, the anesthesiologist just agreed to go ahead (she only had 3 little pieces of toast) so it looks like that surgery is going to happen now. Things sure change quickly!
ReplyDeleteJust talked with the surgeon again. She said the first time the stitch went in, they used a device that sets the stitch pretty wide, and when it gets closed up there is quite a bit of tension as the tissue is pulled all the way together. She mentioned that she's seen that before with this device, and is the reason she suspected that was the problem. So this time she just went in and did a manual stitch without pulling so tight, so hopefully for our super-sensitive princess that will make all the difference. :+) Hopeful that we'll be headed home first thing in the morning, instead of headed back to surgery then.
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