I am at Albany Med south – haven’t eaten since 10pm the night before – I stayed up just so I could eat & drink! I am scheduled for surgery at 10:20am – my mom, dad, and cousin Patti – were with me – we were all in this little spot in the room. Only supposed to be one person – but I had 3 – as long as we were quite. After a while they gave me versid ( I think that’s the spelling) it’s a drug to take the edge off make you sleepy…….well it didn’t make me sleepy – ut oh. Then at 12:20pm they took me to the OR I was talking to a man named Wes he was the anesthesiologist he had some cool looking head (dorags) I told him I wanted to wear them under my helmet – he told me I could buy in bulk – well, now Im in Operating room and I remember asking Wes if he’d be there the whole time I was scared, but wide awake and they couldn’t do anything till I was asleep – I talked to my surgeon a bit too – he removed the two tumors and then Dr. Gannon my plastic surgeon started the reconstruction, I had an expander put in. THEN….. I remember waking to men named Nate & Jordan – I said when are they going to start – Nate said your all done. I was groggy – and in the recovery room – I was freezing they were feeding me ice chips on a spoon and had me covered in warm blankets. I was done -? I had had my mastectomy already? It was 5:00pm when I got to my room – my mom, & Patti were there – I don’t remember a lot I was in and out with the effect of the anesthesia.
Unfortunately Dr. Hena came in to say that one of my Lymph nodes was affected with disease – which surely meant that I would need chemotherapy treatment. See before I had surgery – I saw an oncologist who may I add – is wonderful – he told me that I was one of 30% of women who had this gene – estrogen raptor gene – and if my nodes were clear of disease that I would be able to take this pill called tamoxafin – and I wouldn’t need chemo – I was hoping that was what was going to happen….but it wasn’t. So he, Dr. Hena removed 15 nodes, and only the first was cancerous – which is good it means it didn’t spread anywhere else, but then it means I need the chemo treatments.
I had some friends come to see me – I have some really great friends – and family!