Part 2 -the surgery

Last week we had a fabulous holiday in Wales before Part 2 -the surgery. It was great to be walking the coast path every day and watching seals and dolphins from Nefyn and Anglesey. As well as being good for my body, it was so good for my mind. It gave my brain a break from worrying about what was going on in my life and appointments etc. I felt like myself rather than a patient. Log fire, reading, lovely accommodation, nice food (that tasted good), even some wine. Just what we needed and a nice recovery from chemo 😊

Of course, the day after we got home, I was in hospital for a pre op assessment and my phesgo injection which is part of the chemo which carries on until into May/June. I was then told my magnesium level had dropped lower than when it was low at my last chemo session, so I needed to go for another infusion the following day. I was disappointed as I had thought it was returning to normal and had a walk planned in Austwick with my friend Lindsay.

We managed to meet early and walk locally for an hour before my infusion, we can’t miss these nice cold sunny days can we! The infusion was done in three hours, and I was on my way.

Next day was operation day. I had had a magseed inserted into the offending boob a couple of weeks ago but unfortunately this had moved out of position so the morning of the operation I had to go and have a wire inserted in Lancaster, then drive to Kendal for the operation. I turned up at the breast clinic at 8am and they started the procedure (a wire is inserted under mammogram so they can see where its going). Unfortunately (again) the wire wasn’t close enough to the seed that was in there.

The poor practitioner kept saying how dense my breasts are, so it was a real struggle for her (and me!!). I had to have two wires inserted in the end. Even that last one was hit and miss but she said she’d never had to do 3 wires before. After the final mammogram to check position, she was happy enough with it and said the surgeon could work with that.  These stay there and need surgical removal. So, I was taken up to Kendal with two seeds and two wires (sticking out) in my boob. I needed these because the chemo had worked so well there is no visual lump, so the surgeon needed to know which bit to remove in surgery.

I was admitted, seen by the usual medical team and given some lovely green surgical stocking to wear. Being first on the list I was taken away down to theatre at lunchtime. The staff were lovely and made me feel at ease. Before I knew I was back on the ward, a bit groggy and sore but was given morphine which helped. By evening I was back home on the sofa.

Today I am sore and bruised but very glad that this part is done. It will be 3 weeks before I get the results to check if the margins and lymph nodes are clear. From that it will be decided if I need anymore surgery or if I go straight to radiotherapy.

I am back on my sunny sofa, trying to rest and trying not to do much with my left arm. The part where the lymph nodes were taken seem to be the most painful bit. I’ll rest up and try to behave myself 😊