Axillary clearance op
Axillary clearance.
Its been a while but with the pain meds I was on typing anything at length was a challenge so today I left the Targin packet up on the cupboard and my head is much clearer. Yes this time the hospital did send me home with stuff stronger than panadol.
Monday was my second operation for an axillary clearance and hubby and I were both absolutely dreading it, mainly because we just couldn’t gel with the surgeon or the staff at the hospital. It was like they were foreign aliens or something and we are just simple rural people.
This time we had family and neighbours sending their prayers and while hubby and I have our own beliefs I think it made a huge difference.
The surgeon on the morning positively skipped into see us. He had a big smile and was really nice and friendly. I thought you can’t be my usual surgeon but it was! The pre-op nurse allowed hubby in with me to get gowned up etc and he stayed with me before theatre the whole time! Amazing, my jaw still drops when I think about it.
Then an anaesthetist saw me and noted my terrible nausea reaction last time on my file and he said we will do full IV this time and no gas. He also was concerned about my allergic reaction of hives to the previous CT scan (drs weren’t) and said you mention that every time as that sort of reaction can get worse and worse each scan. Finally someone who paid attention!
I came out of the op with absolutely no nausea at all. Gosh I could have gone home that night I think but I had an overnight hospital stay. My sister came to visit me and the next morning my neighbour rang me and I am just so glad they did. My mum and dad waited a few hours this time before visiting which was great as I had stopped drooling and had some composure by then. It’s amazing, you think you are ok but a friendly face or a voice makes one heck of a difference so if ever you have friends of loved ones in hospital, do them a favour and take a few mins to phone or call in.
I only dozed during the night. I kept feeling that as soon as I slept deeper I would wake up in fright like I was going under again. It did pass as soon as I got home to my own bed.
Pain in the under arm is twitchy and on and off. Only once it grabbed me really bad and there was some nice Tourettes sort of language that went with it but it came good in half a minute. There are a lot of nerves under there which run the arm properly and have been cut or damaged and it feels like they all are jostling for healing or rerouting time to heal at once.
My physio came to see me in hospital and assured me I cannot hurt the wound with movement and to do as much as I can, very slowly and it will all come good.
I have put on a kilogram with the neighbour and mums cooking in the past couple of days so apart from future chemo I am pretty sure my cancer is gone. Amazing how fast I am bouncing back.
