Cancer Update – Part 31

13 July 2023

What a day. Holley stuck with me through thick and thin. See arrived at the house at 8:45 am and finally left and the only way 6:45 pm. She’s a trooper! She spent 10 hours at Holy Cross with me. I figure she colored quite a few pages in her adult coloring book!

First order of business after checking in was to go down to imaging for preop for a Lymphoscintigram which is a fancy way of saying they wanted to inject a radioactive substance into my sentinel lymph nodes. The idea is to pinpoint the lymph nodes so they can biopsy them during the mastectomy without having to explore too much. They take photos where the areas glow on a camera photograph. It takes 15 minutes for the radioactivity to find the nodes. Then they take five minutes of photos so they technician and doctor can mark them on my body with, get this, a Sharpie.

The doctor was a wit. When he found out my name was Searcy, he asked the tech who that was. The tech didn’t know so when he asked me I said a Demi-goddess who turned Odyessus’ men into pigs. Of course, the demigoddess is spelled Circe. The doctor was impressed. Then I explained the origin of my name from the province of Cerci in Franc and the Huguenot emigration to England.

I won’t lie and tell you the procedure didn’t hurt. It did. He said he does this numerous times of day with women and they never bat an eye. Only men express pain. I said “what did he expect – anything different.” My sentinel lymph nodes were in the arm pit region.

In part of the conversation with the orderly who wheeled me into imaging, he talked about masks and the need to wear them (we were) and how he needed to get back in the habit. There were eleven Covid patients in Holy Cross and it looked like the number was increasing. It did.

After that, things moved rapidly. I was taken back to preop.

I was wheeled into surgery at 1 pm. Poor Holley. They made her go to the waiting room. The surgeon, Dr. Burgers, came by and explained everything to Holly and me prior to surgery. Holley wanted me to stay the night because it’s easier to treat pain in the hospital through an IV line than at home with pills. The nurse suggested Dr. Burgers was adverse to the idea but she immediately agreed to admit me after the surgery. I guess I didn’t have to tell her men can’t tolerate pain as well as women.

Holley was on pins and needles while in the waiting room but Dr. Burgers came to explain everything. The lymph nodes were not cancerous. They will continue to do tests and I have a follow up appointment next week with both Dr. Burgers and the hematologist/oncologist Dr. Velez. Dr. Burgers is pretty certain nothing will show up on the extended tests of the lymph nodes. That was great news that the cancer had not spread. She also told Holley (and probably me but I don’t remember anything) that the tumor was easily detached and dispatched.

I was taken to recovery and was loopy for quite a while. Then they rolled me up to fourth floor for my night in the hospital. The nurse came in later and said there’s good news and bad news. The good news was things looked good surgery wise and the bad news was I tested positive for Covid. She said they would send me to the Covid floor on the second floor.

What’s so strange was four weeks ago I tested negative when I was in the emergency room from dehydration. I also show no symptoms. I found out tonight they will maybe keep me a couple of days for Covid observation so I guess it was a good thing they reserved a room for me post surgery. I may be in the hospital for a longer stay than I thought.

I do have a little pain from the surgery but they immediately gave me some happy juice through the IV and it’s manageable. I also have a bra to keep pressure on the wound. I knew they would put a drain into the wound to keep fluid from building up but I did not anticipate the size of the bulb used to collect the fluid. I imagined a small bulb like on a pipette. It’s huge! It has to be emptied once or twice every day for a week, at least.

My new room on the second floor has a scenic view of the air conditioning unit for this wing. Before bringing me down to the second floor, Holley went to the cafeteria and bought me dinner. Just as they took me down, the hospital brought me dinner and it was virtually identical to what Holley brought me.

Holley made me pack a bag just in case of a hospital stay and that’s where I kept my phone, iWatch, iPad and laptop. She kept it in the trunk of her car and when she brought it up I had something like 30 texts and messages asking about me and how I was doing. It was very moving.

I actually feel great. Could be the drugs but I’m not in a lot of pain. I’m mobile and I’m hoping for a false positive on the Covid test. My new room is a single so there’s no roommate. Life could have been a lot worse after the surgery today so I count my blessings.

Stay tuned!