Wow! I can't believe how much has changed since Friday! I am feeling stronger and stronger each day and I feel better and better. Today I took a shower and ditched my pain ball! That thing was a pain in my neck... literally.
With the help of Brad, this morning I managed to bathe myself and get a lot of that disinfecting orange crap off of me. Parts of my body reminded me of Jersey Girls. Ha! I looked like a spray tan gone horribly wrong. The shower took some time and maneuvering. I had to take my pain ball (which is housed in a fanny pack) and drape it over the other side of the shower door. I took a hanger, hooked the fanny pack onto it and then threw the tubes over the top of the shower door. I let the tubes hang down that were attached to me. Then for my drains, I attached them to a lanyard and put that around my neck. It was very cumbersome. Nevertheless, I had the help of my CNA Brad! I can't believe the only two CNAs in the hospital that asked if I needed assistance in "personal hygiene" were Jacob and Thwang, both males. I declined their assistance. I wonder what was going through their minds. Hee hee hee! Then after being soaped up and getting rinsed off (I couldn't let the shower hit my chest, I had to let the water just run over the front of me), I got a pat down with the towel. It felt wonderful to be clean again. A shower re-invigorates a soul. After my shower, I got Brad to pull out the tubing for the pain ball. He took off the plastic guarding the soaker hose tube. Then read the directions of how to remove the ON-Q pain ball tubes. Just pull slowly. He pulled and I could feel the tubing coming out of my breast. He kept pulling and pulling. There must have been at least 12" wrapped up in my breast cavity. It was unbelievable. Next it was the other side. We did the same thing. The only thing that hurt was when it was coming out it was pulling on my skin a little bit. So that wasn't very fun. But once it was out, it was nice to walk around without having two tubes coming out of my body attached to a fanny pack. Normally I would walk around the house with the pack around my neck... hence "Pain in my neck." But that was the best place for me to put it. It was heavy because it was still filled with pain medication. After getting freed from that, I actually could hug my kids without fear that Elaina would pull on the tubes. Yes, I still have drains, but those are tucked in under my shirt. So I don't fear them touching that part of me. (I'll post a picture of the pain ball later.)
After my shower and Dr. Brad working on me, I went out shopping with Karen. We hit up Target (needed to get the final book to the Lauren Kate series Fallen... thanks Ann!) and I bought "Rapture". After that we went to Kohls. Karen lucked out at both stores, picking up a shirt and a pair of capris. My shopping excursion caused me to become a little tired, so I took a nap. Then it was dinner and now my kids are bathed and smell so wonderful.
I also got a call from the social worker at the Center for Health and Healing Cancer floor, Kerry. She said that I was emotional after surgery and wanted to know if I was okay. I said I was and that it was emotional because of the fact that I had been through surgery and it was all done... the hardest parts of the whole treatment are done and I can now look forward to recovering. I told her that I wasn't emotional because I lost my breasts... I actually didn't care. But she wanted to check up on me. I thought that was nice.
Tomorrow I have two follow up appointments. One is with Dr. Thakar. Hopefully I will be able to get the three drains taken out of my side... I'll settle for taking out even one or two. They suck. Then I have a follow up appointment with Dr. Naik. Hopefully she will have the results from the axillary node dissection. I hope she got everything because I really don't want to undergo another surgery to get my lymph nodes taken out. I wonder how many they ended up taking anyway. I will let you know.
Now back to my stay in the hospital...
Sunday, June 17
Bright and early I woke up to the doctors doing their rounds. The breast surgeon fellow wanted to discharge me that day. I said no problem, however, I was already starting to feel a little ill. I ended up throwing up several times and then I had issues getting water down. As soon as I drank, I threw it up again. Uh oh. I wasn't going home. I was okay with that. Then my IV line blew and they couldn't push anything in it. It would hurt. So they ended up getting IV therapy in the room. She tried three times puncturing holes everywhere in my arm and couldn't get it. She said I give up, packed up her things and said to call when I get more hydrated. Um, yea, that's my problem. I can't get hydrated and that's why I needed the IV. The doctor had ordered phenergren via IV. If they didn't get a good line in, the drug could wreck my skin. It's just as toxic as chemo on my skin. Lovely. So then my wonderful nurse, Cathy W. (who I had for the second day in a row) suggested a suppository. That would be awesome. I was down with that. So she ordered the phenergren via suppository. Then another nurse, Aaron, came in and wanted to have a go at putting in an IV. He got it, but then it blew again. He said he tried. He also suggested that I try sucking on a popsicle. I said sure, I'd try anything. He got me a grape popsicle. The popsicle made me feel better. I don't know if it was because I had just gotten my suppository or because I was finally getting the water I needed and some much needed sugar in my body. I started feeling better. Then another IV therapy person came in. This time he came in with an u/s and found my teeny tiny vein via the machine. That was nice. I ended up not needing it anyway. Then around 5, I became hungry. I made Brad order me penne pasta. I got that and ate it ALL. I managed to keep everything down as well as the water that I was drinking. It tasted great. I even had a little tomato basil sauce on top with a roll. I kept dinner as bland as possible.
Bill came to visit around 6 or so and I was feeling great. Brad and Bill went to dinner in the cafeteria and I told Brad that he needed to bring me some "contraband" back to the room. I wanted some french fries. They didn't have that on my menu. Also, I told Brad to order me up another round of pasta, roll and a chocolate chip cookie because I was hungry. That came shortly after 7 when Brad and Bill got back from dinner. I wolfed that up too. I also ate half of the french fries. I was so hungry. It was the first full meal that I had had since Thursday night! Wonderful to feel a full tummy. Now I mentioned previously that the nurses were asking me if I had bowel movement. I kept saying no. Kind of hard to have one when you haven't eaten in days! Duh. Needless to say, I was feeling really good that night and slept wonderfully. I was ready to go home.
I'll be back with the Monday conclusion of my hospital stay tomorrow. I want to go and spend some time with Karen. She leaves tomorrow and then my mom will be here.
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