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parsifal's avatar
parsifal
Member
12 years ago

Complications

The operation went well on the Monday night,  and I wasn't feeling too bad on the Tuesday and was ready to be discharged on the Wednesday morning.
The nurse removed the drain, and I started to have a shower before changing into my street clothes.
Midway through the shower I started bleeding pretty hard. After they plugged the hole, in a short while my chest started swelling up to the point where it was like there was a balloon in there and the pressure was threatening to pop the stitches. 
I started to pass out, which occasioned the first 'code blue' and the crash team arrived for the first time, applied pressure bandages, gave me injections etc and went away.
They figured it would resolve without further surgery but then after a couple of hours it all started up again, the pressure increased, my blood pressure dropped suddenly and I started to pass out again, so that brought the crash cart back, and within a reasonably short time I was whisked off to theatre, where they opened me up and drained off over a litre of blood.
After this I felt a lot worse than I had the morning after the first operation, my haemoglobin was well down and I just wanted to sleep a lot, so I had a couple of weeks at home doing not much.

That was all a couple of months ago, and I've been fine since.

5 Replies

  • Robyn_W's avatar
    Robyn_W
    Member
    12 years ago
    It is nice to hear from you.I have wondered how you have been going.What great news that you didn't need chemo.I hope everything continues well for you.Cheers Robyn.xox
  • Robyn_W's avatar
    Robyn_W
    Member
    12 years ago
    It is nice to hear from you.I have wondered how you have been going.What great news that you didn't need chemo.I hope everything continues well for you.Cheers Robyn.xox
  • Ebb_and_Flow's avatar
    Ebb_and_Flow
    Member
    12 years ago

    Hi Alan, I saw the same news blog and YES!, It is so inspiring to see these women joining and empathising with each other after such an ordeal. I hope you would feel this same solidarity and support as a man. Don't think you are any different, it is a huge journey to go through. Congratulations and power to you! Best wishes, Ingrid xxx

  • parsifal's avatar
    parsifal
    Member
    12 years ago

    Many thanks Ingrid. Sorry to hear about the pathology change for you. That must have been very distressing when you thought the situation was much better.

     I was extremely lucky I wasn't a long way away from the hospital when I started bleeding, plus they were so pressed for beds I might not have got a room if I'd had to come back. On the morning I was due to leave, people with clipboards were wandering in to check if I was still in residence, and I'd only been there 2 nights. When I had my problems I got the clipboard people all perplexed, because the spreadsheet said I wasn't there anymore.

    I mentioned my chestscape to the surgeon, and he said he could do a bit of reconstruction, but I figured 'Why bother?'. It's not as big a difference for men.

    On that note, there was a lovely TV news item the other day about the people who set a record for the world's biggest nude swim somewhere on Sydney Harbour. Included among the 700 or so participants were a number of women who'd had breast cancer surgery. On completing it a number of those women, whom I think were strangers to each other, rejoiced together, still naked, in celebration of their bodies and their survival. Very inspiring - more power to them.

    Alan xx 

       

  • parsifal's avatar
    parsifal
    Member
    12 years ago

    Thanks Deanne. Yes I was lucky that the cancer was detected early as it had changed (forgotten the terminology now) and become more sinister than a DCIS. They removed one sentinel node and there was no evidence of any spread, so I'm not going to need chemo or radiotherapy. I'm still getting used to my new look chest.

    best

    Alan