7th August 2013. Nil by mouth from 00.00.
At 10.00 I am in the Department of Nuclear Medicine for my Sentinel Node Scan. I am called in and advised that dye will be injected into my right nipple, I will then be asked to wait 20 mins or so, to allow the dye to move, then come back in for the scan.
The radiographer wears lead gloves and a lead apron and the dye is in its own small lead case. OK, so this stuff is going into my body!
I hardly feel a thing as the dye goes in and I am told I can get dressed and wait in the waiting room, or go to Costa if I want, I opt for the latter. As my operation is not until the afternoon I can drink and I really need a cup of tea. I am just about to leave when an agitated radiographer calls me back. It seems the reason I did not feel anything is due to the face that nothing went in! The syringe was faulty. I strip off again, lay on the scanning machine again, see the lead gloves again, and I feel the dye going in this time. Its not painful, just a sharp sting. This time they want to check the dye is in so start to scan straight away.
'This wont take long', the young radiographer says, 'Your Lymph moves really fast, it will only take about 15 mins'. As I lay there, I wonder if having fast moving Lymph is good or bad when you have cancer??????
The scan was over by 11.00am. I walked from the x-ray department to the Day Surgery Unit and checked in at the reception. It was a long wait.
At 12.30 I was called in and saw a nurse, she did my basic observations and showed me where to get changed and wait. I then saw the consultant Anaesthetist, he was a colleague of mine from the Maternity Unit, we have worked together a lot up to now! It seemed today was a good day to have an operation as all the new doctors started work today, and they were on their Trust Induction day. So the list today was staffed by Consultants! That was lucky!
I then waited in the small room again, until I was called to see the Consultant Surgeon. This was the first time I had actually met 'my' surgeon. He was lovely and explained what he would do, checked my consent form and said 'lets get on with it then!'.
With that a nurse led me to the theatre.
I must have been fast asleep, because as I was woken up from the general anaesthetic I really thought I was at home in my bed, it was a shock to open my eyes and see the theatre recovery area. Once I had opened my eyes and responded to the ODAs questions I was wheeled down to the Day Unit.
At this point I reached for my right breast, just to check it was there, it was, I went back to sleep. As I lay in the day unit in my drugged state, many Theatre Nurses and ODPs who were passing saw me and came over to chat, I don't think I made much sense.
The day unit has rules, you have to have a drink and eat at least a biscuit before they will let you go home. I was struggling to wake up, it took me over 90 mins to eat the biscuit as I slowly emerged from the general aesthetic. I was in a Morphine induced haze as I struggled to drink tea.
As the last patient in the day unit I got up to go to the bathroom, I managed to do it, but vomited the tea and biscuit up at the same time! I did not tell any one as I wanted to go home. Who wants to stay overnight in hospital, its hot, noisy, and who can sleep with a plastic covered bed and plastic pillows? I was going home! I stripped my bed, with its vomited on sheets, I found the sluice and deposited the sheets into the linen skip. The Nurse was very impressed with my housekeeping efforts and ran through a long list of dos and don'ts and finally at 20.00 I got into my car and my husband drove me home to my own bed.
Now just the wait for the results and the treatment plan.
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