Results, Relief and Round Two

Thursday, 21st August - Date of the second op

The day started off early with a bowl of crunchy nut cornflakes at 6:50am as I’d been told to fast from 7am.

I had until 8am to wait for Amber to receive the email from school with her GCSE results. 

We’d agreed she would open them on her own upstairs then come down and tell me what she got. 

I won’t lie this was on my brain far more than my upcoming op at this stage. 

Amber was diagnosed with ADHD a couple of years ago after a few years of absolute misery at school so just being able to sit the exams was a massive achievement considering where she was 5 years ago. 

I heard her get up at 8 and I sat downstairs with bated breath. 

She came downstairs quite slowly and quietly. I immediately asked if she was smiling or crying - she just said I’ll let you look. 

I was terrified.

Within a few seconds of opening the results I could see that she’d tricked me. She had done amazingly well - 2 grades higher in some subjects than her predicted grades. Way more than her requirements for her place at college that she had a conditional offer for. 

It was such a relief. We spent the next half an hour looking at the grade boundaries and uploaded her grades on the college website to accept her place. 

Once we had enrolled her the pressure was off. 

Now it was time to focus on me again but I really couldn’t be bothered. I was just so excited for her - and what this meant for her future. She’d be going into London twice a week from the first week of September no more daily school runs!

The only sticking point was that she had an induction day to attend on Thursday next week and I don’t think I’ll be in a position to drive her to the station based on what the surgeon has said - (and if my car is back from the garage).

But I’ll deal with that nearer the time. 

This conveniently distracted me long enough to fill my morning along with a shower and hairwash before dad collected me to take me to the hospital. 

Ooh slight aside - after my shower I took the dressing off my nipple (it was just on to stop me catching the scab) I had a little poke and the scab came off!! Woo hoo - this day was going really well! I still had a reasonable nipple left and bonus points - it was now smaller so wouldn’t show so much through my sports bras!

We got to the Day Surgery Unit in plenty of time this time, and I was less busting for a wee but still ready to do my urine sample as soon as I arrived. Within a minute of doing my sample the pre op nurse came and took me through to the ward to get booked in. 

I had all my obs' done and they went through the pre-op questionnaire that I’d filled in previously. 

I could hear Mr Cathcart talking in the bay next to me to a lady that he was seeing next for a short procedure. Then he went to a lady on the other side of me so I immediately knew I’d be a little while before going down to surgery. 

While I was waiting my turn to see him, the anaesthetist came to see me. A different man this time - called Henry. 

He said it would be a similar anaesthetic to last time. So that was good as I really found that worked well for me before. 

After he left Mr Cathcart came in.

He asked how I was and how Amber's results had gone (which I thought was really sweet of him to remember). I told him she had done well and that I’d had my own good result with the nipple scab coming off. 

He was suitably excited too and asked if he could take a look. 

He was very pleased at the result, as am I. 

He explained with today’s procedure they’d be taking a small sample from my lymph region under my armpit on the right side, and hope to get lymph nodes this time. If they don’t get any, he confirmed they wouldn’t do any more surgery to try again, but in that situation they’ll take it that there is no concern if they’re not enlarged enough to be found. 

After he left I settled down for a wait that was predicted to be 2-2.5 hours. 

In the bays there is the bed that you go into surgery on and an armchair. It’s not a very comfy armchair (although it’s a very pretty pink), and I could feel myself getting a bit antsy in it. I thought it would be so much more comfortable if it reclined, but I couldn’t find any levers or anything to signify it was. 

After going for a week I thought I’d investigate further and lo and behold it did recline! Very far back in fact. So I got myself comfy and the nurses laughed at me and how settled I looked. 

During the wait I found myself getting quite chilly so I was given  a couple of blankets  to put over me which did help a bit. 

When it was time to go into surgery they came to get me. The anaesthesia process was actually a bit different this time (despite what I’d been told earlier that day).  

I had a cannula in my hand and they gave me oxygen (I also had 3 electrodes stuck on my forehead this time to monitor my brain activity 🧠).

Then they injected something into my hand that would make me feel drowsy. It also made my arm quite uncomfortably sore. I mentioned this and he said it was normal. After this I don’t remember anything else. 

When I came round from op, I felt them extract the tube from my throat which was a strange sensation and not one I remember from previous general anaesthetic procedures. 

I was very much more groggy than last time, I felt like I was being awoken from a very, very deep sleep (which obviously I was).. 

This wore off quite quickly and I was on my phone messaging Mark and Amber shortly after. 

This time I had a ham sandwich as there was no cheese sandwich available, but the nurse brought me some crackers and a lump of cheese to make up for it, and a carton of apple juice that I managed to peirce straight away with the paper straw!

I felt like it took ages to eat - which is very unlike me - and then I sat reading my kindle and aimlessly browsing Facebook. 

At some point Mr Cathcart came to see me and said it had all gone well; they’d managed to get 5 lymph nodes so he was very happy. 

There was a small wound under my armpit with a waterproof dressing. I had to wait 24 hours before getting it wet though. 

He said the nurse would ring me tomorrow morning to check on me and go through the next steps. He would see me in a couple of weeks for the results. 

I’m not sure how much time had passed but I asked to go for a wee. When I came out I asked how long until I could go home, and the nurse said whenever I felt up to getting dressed. 

Perfect. I felt like I could do that now! 

So I got myself dressed while the nurse sorted out my discharge papers and then she said I could ring my dad to collect me. 

Another nurse came and took my cannula out then I waited for dad to bring me home. 

We did a quick detour into Sainsburys to get Amber a card and flowers for her results - I hadn’t wanted to jinx it by getting them the day before. 

I got home and both Mark and Amber were surprised at how fine I was (especially compared to last time). I was showing them how I could still get my arm above my head, which I was so excited about as I was convinced I’d be massively restricted with my movement so this was a massive relief. They told me off for waving my arms around as I was meant to be taking it easy!

I wasn’t feeling massively hungry as I’d had the sandwich earlier and I’d munched my way through a packet of Jaffa cakes on the way home from Sainsburys.

So Mark made me some beans on toast that I was craving.

I still didn’t seem to have any pain and at bed time I took some paracetamol just to preempt any pain I may get as the numbing drugs wore off in the night. 

Mark is convinced I didn’t actually have surgery as I’m so ‘normal’ I’m even writing this in bed under the covers while he’s gone to sleep! 

I should get some shut eye now so I’ll stop here but I’ll upload this first thing so you are up to date. 

Quick morning after update -

I had a similar experience to last time in that my brain was so busy processing everything from the day I couldn’t get to sleep for ages, but once asleep I was ok until about 5:45am when I went to the loo. 

I’m up and about now and still have no pain in the surgery site. I’m a bit sore if I touch the area but if I don’t touch it there’s nothing to notice. I’ve taken some paracetamol and ibuprofen just in case. I’m still able to fully move my arm so I’ll be back on my ‘gentle’ physio exercises I’ve been given by the hospital.