4 August 2023
It’s been a day, starting with a restless night’s sleep. I probably should have taken a Xanax. I will tonight. It seems the pressure builds up in the swelling over what was my left breast and under the arm pit and I kept tossing and turning. Also, every time I got up last night to go to the bathroom it felt like my vertigo was trying to make a come back.
I was early to Dr. Burger’s appointment but didn’t mind waiting. I kept hearing the receptionist handle phone calls. That woman has the patience of Job. No matter how upset the caller, she never raised her voice, always tried to soothe the person on the phone and she handled it with such professionalism. I get the feeling that all their staff undergo empathy training but I think it comes naturally to most of them.
Lorraine, the nurse, took me back for a vitals check and it wasn’t but a minute or two before Dr. Burgers walked in. She first did an ultrasound of the area and offered me two options. She could give me a local in the examining room and try to free up the congealed blood and express it through a small incision or see me in surgery on Monday where she would have more equipment at her disposal.
After thinking it over, she said, let’s try it today. My skin was so tight with the swelling I didn’t even feel the injection of the lidocaine. I did feel the scalpel’s incision but it was so quick it didn’t matter. Then for the next 30-40 minutes she worked on getting the blood out. It was a little like popping a pimple. She pushed and shoved and tried to work what congealed blood she could through the incision.
The knot under my arm pit did not cooperate and did not seem to be connected to the other swelling so she shot that area with lidocaine and did another incision right at that location. Again, pop the pimple time.
She was successful somewhat. Lorraine, who assisted, said she got a lot of semi-solid blood out. Dr. Burgers, at one point, was using forceps to pull some of the stuff out. She really dug in and around those two incisions. Of course, all during this time I was dripping all over the examination table.
She took a swab to send off to the lab to make sure there are no surprises. Unless it comes back positive for bacteria, she doesn’t plan to put me on antibiotics because of my diarrhea issue.
In the end, she decided to go ahead with surgery on Monday. She thinks she can suction all the material out in one go and instead of waiting on my body to absorb the blood over three or four months, cut down the time to a week or two.
She’ll give me a light dose of anesthesia – somewhat like for a colonoscopy. That way I won’t feel anything but won’t be in deep sleep.
I’m now scheduled to go in on August 7th at 12:30 pm at the Holy Cross Healthplex. That’s where they did my bicep surgery. I like the place and they treat you well there. Dr. Burgers said she would try not to put another drain in me but that was a possibility.
She and Lorraine bandaged me up, supplied me with changes in dressings and sent me home. Lorraine told me to use hydrogen peroxide on the blood stains on my shirt. I wore a red shirt just in case. The lidocaine was wearing off (they use a short acting one) and I was in a good bit of pain by the time I got home. I slept for about two hours. I did try the hydrogen peroxide and it took the blood stain out without any scrubbing.
I now have three holes on my left side, all seeping fluids, mostly blood. I’m back to bath wipes since I can’t shower with open wounds. I’m sure where she worked on me will be tender and sore. She was not gentle in trying to get the goo out. However, I can tell that the pressure that was under the skin is not as great as it once was.
I send out a friend request for transport to and from surgery. Holley, again, immediately volunteered to take me, wait for me and bring me home from surgery. No one is faster at answering a group text when I ask for help. I’ll have to buy her another adult coloring book. The ten hours she spent the last surgery probably gave her enough time to completely color her other adult coloring book.
You know how little things get you upset? I was a little miffed as I drove to the doctor this morning. My next door neighbor is having impact windows installed (I’m pleased for her since she’s alone and can’t lower her hurricane shutters). Today was yard trash and garbage pick up. The two guys installing the windows took all the cardboard surrounding the windows and put it in my yard waste bin.
I don’t care they used my bins but they needed to use the recycle bin, not yard waste. The city once issued me a warning when someone put their doggy poop bag in my yard waste bin. I called the city and complained and explained I couldn’t be held responsible for someone putting their dog waste in a bin that on the street to be picked up. I had no control over that. Deaf ears.
I fully expected a warning on my yard waste bin when I returned but apparently their either didn’t care or notice that it was full of yard waste and cardboard. It’s a silly thing to get upset over but with everything that been happening lately, it was one more thing I didn’t need to worry about.
Stay tuned!