Wow! What a Surgery!

Ok The pics are first I can't figure out how to move them. Here are all of my drains. I felt loaded and ready to throw a grenade!


Here is my inscision...from hip to hip!!

This is the $40,000 tissue oximeter that IMC is doing a trial study with.



All of my lovely machines and bags of fluids that I was attached to


This monitor on my ear was for oxygen. The one they usually use on your finger didn't work because of my nails, so this beauty hung from my ear for a few days!


My first breakfast! I was starving...


Me and my mommy!

Me and my sissy Angie
So I went into the hospital at 5:30 am on Monday morning, Feb. 1st. I was surprised at how calm I was. Maybe it was because I have done this so many times before, because G was there with me, or I think it was because G, my dad, brothers and bro-in-laws gave me a priesthood blessing the night before. Up to that point since the surgery had been scheduled, I had been very nervous. I kept thinking that I have gone to "heck and back" and it would really stink if I were to die now. Of course you always think the worst thoughts and I especially worry about G and our boys and what would they really do if the worst happened to me? I got all registered and my surgery time was for 7:30. So while we waited G and I tried to relax and not think to much about what a long day lay ahead of us.

The pain that I have had in my radiated breast felt like a burning hot curling iron pushing on the implant. It was a constant pain that was sometimes so bad that the only way to relieve the pain was to put a hot pad on my chest. I was looking forward to this pain going away but not excited about the length of the surgery and what the next week was going to be like. Dr. Ferguson came in around quarter to 7 and needed to mark up my body and take pictures...lovely! He starts by marking my collar bone, middle line down my chest and my hips. These are used to make sure everything lines up correctly. Then he marks where he will cut on the stomach and chest. While he is doing this G asks if he will change my belly button. I didn't think he would cut it off but he needed to use the skin above and below my button so he told me I could decide what I wanted my new belly button to look like. G wanted me to have a big ugly outie. My dad thought it would be fun if I had Dr. Ferguson give me two belly buttons. Great conversation at parties! I liked the one I had before so I told him to make the new one like the old.

G was ushered out of the room and I was on my way. I'm still a little nervous about coming out of the surgery because of the anxiety attack I had after my mastectomy and the anesthesiologist was a new guy who I hadn't met before. I let him know what worked best for me and felt much better about it. The nurse leaves me in the hallway just outside the operating room and it is always interesting to see all the medical staff coming and going. Dr. Ferguson asked if I brought my ipod so they could listen to my music but I left it with G. They always ask what they are operating on so they can all confirm the procedure. Once they get me into the room it is all business. I move onto the operating table and within a few seconds I was in "lala land!"

The next thing I remember was coming out of the surgery in intensive care and being really irritated. The inflatable leg massager things they had on my legs were driving me nuts and they had an oxygen mask on me that drove me insane. I remember continually pulling it off and a very patient nurse putting it back on and telling me that it had to stay.

I found out a little later that the surgery was about an hour or so longer than they expected because they dug between the cartilage in my upper rib cage to find good veins to use for the transplanted tissue and my veins were good on my non-radiated side but they had a lot more "branches" off of them then people typically have. That resulted in a little more work under a microscope for Dr. Ferguson. He said the veins on my radiated side would just kind of disintegrate when he touched them. Thankfully he was able to get it all buttoned up and he felt good about how things went. Total time in surgery was about 11 hours!!!

G came to visit me in the intensive care at about 9:30pm after having waited all day. It was an incredibly long day for him in an uncomfortable chair in a waiting room. I was so happy to see him. He massaged my legs to help with those dang inflatable things and calmed me down. He said that I was all puffed up. My face was red and my skin looked chapped. We found out later that it is common for that to happen after such a long surgery.

They wouldn't allow him to stay longer than 11pm while I was in ICU so he took off about then.

I continued to feel better as the days passed. I was in ICU until about 7pm on Tuesday night and it was so nice to get in a room and get settled. It is always so nice to get visitors. My boys were able to come and see me then and I was glad to see their faces. It was obvious that they were all pretty concerned and I hoped it help them to see that I was doing ok.

They had installed 6 drains! With them pinned around me it reminded me of a soldier with a belt full of grenades. Two drains on each breast and two in my lower stomach. I was attached to many many things...Oxygen, for some reason I was having a hard time keeping my Oxygen level above 90%, the alarm I was attached too continually went off. I also had a catheter...yucky. I had 5 heart monitors attached that they removed just after the surgery. Three on my chest and 2 on my legs. In my IV I was getting saline, antibiotics and I had a wonderful little "Pain Button" that I could push every 15 minutes and it would give me a shot of pain meds. I also had a new machine that IMC is using in a trial test called a Tissue Oximeter. There was a monitor stitched into each breast on the new tissue and this machine would measure the flow of oxygen in the newly attached blood vessels. They use this machine to see if my body accepts the new tissue. Before they had this machine they had to use sonar, which is sound and it was not as successful. The PA-C told us that this machine has already saved 2 patients with new transplanted tissues. This cute little blue machine, cost a whopping $40,000!!! Below is a picture of the machine. The oxygen levels needed to stay above 40% on each side and the lowest mine ever went was 52%.

On Wednesday afternoon I was finally able to walk around a little bit. It felt great to be up but it was a pain to drag along so many machines and cords. Travis, Dr. Ferguson's PA-C asked me to walk 4 times around the nurses station and I ended up doing 6 laps. The nurses named me "The Trooper." Later that afternoon I got the catheter removed which was very nice. I hope to never experience that again...I won't give any gory details! G stayed over the night which was great because every time I had to get up to go to the bathroom always took a few minutes to unlatch myself from all my machines and then drag along the IV pole.

Thursday was a good day. I must say thank you to all my family and friends who came to visit. When I take pain meds I am always groggy and it is hard to read and concentrate, so I can't really read or watch TV. Thanks to my many visitors I had lots of entertainment. Dr. F came to check on me and told me that I would be able to go home on Friday. So throughout the day they started to take all the things attached off. They finally figured out why I was having so many alarms go off on my oxygen...my fake fingernails. The nurse put the monitor on my toe and it still wouldn't register my oxygen so it ended up on my ear lobe. The tissue oximeter that was stitched to my breasts was removed by Travis. When he came in to do it, my GG was there visiting, she is my maternal Grandma. When Travis removed the bra and padding my GG said, "Wow are those new boobs K's?" We all busted up laughing even Travis. Of course they are not size K's and Travis informed GG that it would take a whole lot more tissue if I wanted breasts that big. No thanks, but it gave us all a giggle!!

My mom stayed with me over night she was concerned because the nurses were so short staffed that several hours passed and I didn't see a nurse until later that night when I called for some more pain meds. My Mom is the best nurse I could ever ask for. She took excellent care of me. When the time comes for someone to take care of her, I will be the first one in line. When you are in the care of so many others and completely helpless you lose all of your dignity. It was nice that it was my mom and G that had to help me with things like going to the bathroom and showering me. Thanks guys.

Friday morning I was all set to go and just before I left I took some more pain meds. My mom was taking me home. Because I was leaving earlier than expected, G had to rush home to pick up so I would be happy to see a clean home! On the drive home I got super nausea's. I almost made it home. Just as my mom turned onto Northridge I opened the car door and threw up all of my breakfast. Yuck! It had to be the most painful in all of my life because of all the stitches I had in my stomach and chest. I did feel much better and got home and slept it off for several hours.

I am so happy to say that I survived the operation and the hospital stay! I am so glad to be home. I have a walker that old people use to help support me over the next couple of weeks. I cannot stand up straight for 3 weeks after surgery. It is very difficult to stand at all but I am comfortable sitting down. I also can't lay flat or on my sides or stomach. I have to prop myself up so that my stomach doesn't stretch out. The first time I went on a walk outside around our circle, our 10 year old neighbor was outside. He said, "Hi," and then ran in his house to tell his mom that Gary is outside walking around the circle with either Chandy or her mom. He couldn't tell because I was pushing the little old walker. So yes, I am the neighborhood old lady for the time being. I have had several neighbors come out to say Hi on my daily walks and every time they all have to comment on the "Old Lady" Walker. I have to admit that it does look funny but there is no way I could stand or walk very long without it.

We live in such a wonderful ward. They have brought over dinner all last week and they are bringing them over all next week. Every time they come over they all are concerned with how I am feeling and if there is anything else they can do to help out our family. There are several lessons I have learned over this trial and of course you do a lot of thinking when you are down and home bound. The first lesson that I have learned is that of compassion. I have been so overcome with fear several times over the last 16 months and it never lasts very long before someone shows me compassion. I am completely amazed at the many many people who have told me they love me and my family. It doesn't matter how many times you hear it, it always gives me a warm jolt to my spirit.

I went to the doctor this past Friday, and had 5 of the 6 drains removed. If you have never had a drain from a surgery I hope you never will. The pain you experience is like no other. There is 12 inches of draining tubes inside of me...for each drain. The first thing they do is remove the stitches that hold the tube in place. Next I hold onto G's hand for dear life as Travis pulled and pulled the drain out. Thankfully the 2 on each breast he pulled out at the same time. I cannot describe what it even feels like, something like a snake unwinding in your chest and it burns the whole time it is coming out my side. After Travis was done with the drains he removed the stitches from my new belly button. It looks so cute! While he was doing this I could feel blood dripping down my right side. When I sat up I had completely bleed through the gauze and through the gown and there was even some blood on the table. When he removed the gauze I was bleeding pretty heavily from one of the drain holes. It took him about 2 minutes to get the bleeding under control. I am now back in my compression bra and packed with gauze. I have to leave it all on for 48 hours. Thankfully I only have 1 drain left and it should come out by next Friday. Dr. F said that I am healing wonderfully. I still need to take it easy and cannot stand straight for another week or so. Other things that I cannot do...I can't put my arms above my head, can't lift more than 5 pounds, no exercising except my daily walks. Oh I almost forgot to tell you that everyday I have to strip the drain lines and dump out the contents of each drain and then record the cc's of each drain. G used to always do this and now Dusty and Matt can even help me do it. They say that they like taking care of their mom! Oh how sweet my little boys are!

I will post again after my doc appt Friday. Hugs and Kisses!