Surgery Day is Finally Here

Well the day is finally here. I finally get this stuff out of me and find out just how far it is. We take off for the hospital and wait to be called back. Surgery is suppose to start at noon and the plastic surgeon says I should be able to go home afterwards. 

I am finally called back by the nurse to get prepped. I explained to her what happened with my other procedure and the IV so she immediately wrapped my hand and arm in a warming blanket while she took all the other information and vitals. She checked my hand, found a good vein and got the IV in the first time.... thank goodness. Next they call my husband back to sit with me while we wait... Not very long after that though the anesthesiologist showed up to discuss what she was going to do and shortly after that the surgeon was there. One last trip to the restroom and the anesthesiologist gave me something because I don't even remember being wheeled into the surgery room. I am sure that was so they could shoot the dye into the nipple on my right breast so that they could do the sentinel node biopsy. 

The next thing I remember is vaguely waking up. I remember hearing my husband asking for juice cause he was light headed... silly guy didn't eat the whole day and here it was 5:30 pm or so... I remember thinking that I can't breathe... every time I did, it hurt. I remember the nurse keep asking me if I was ready to go home and that if I was going to go home I needed to start getting dressed. Well I tried... she helped me up to go to the bathroom and it hurt so bad that there was no way I was going home at that point. Back to the bed I went and the next thing I remember was actually being in the hospital bed in the room. The doctor really didn't want me to stay in the hospital and I now know that if the PACU nurse would have given me a few more hours, I would have been OK to go home. I had a wonderful nurse and MA that took care of me overnight and I left the next morning.

The plastic surgeon came in the morning I was in the hospital looked at the incisions... that was the first time I actually saw what it all looked like, but there was lots of gauze over it. To my surprise, I was just fine with it.... and I headed home.


Here are some pictures of what to expect the day after surgery... These pictures are GRAPHIC... Please be aware of this if you choose to open these links. These links will open in another window, so please make sure to close that window when done.

Mastectomy Scars Day After Surgery

Mastectomy drains
More Mastectomy drains