Surgery

It seems like we had to fight tooth and nail to get this surgery done. Insurance has been a battle from the very beginning, even getting Ryan's FMLA paperwork straightened out so he could stay home and take care of me. Everything came down to the last minute. But we made it so surgery day!! I never thought I would be so happy to have this surgery. Sunday nightI received a priesthood blessing, it was nice to be with my family and have the comfort of a priesthood blessing. I felt calm Sunday and Monday morning before surgery. I know I was blessed, I knew this surgery was the right thing, that we had good doctors and that I would be taken care of. Sunday at 1100pm Ryan cooked a stake dinner, I drank about a liter of water and we went to bed. We didn't have to check in at Huntsman until 1130 am so we got to sleep in, shower, get our things together and went to the hospital. After we checked in I had to get a radioactive dye shot in my right breast. we met Dr. Neumayer's NP Victoria Serpico who was awesome! She gave me the shots and explained what would happen with surgery. Then we went to a pre-op room where it seems like we met everyone in the hospital! The CNA came in and got vitals extremely slowly! Because I have the BRCA gene I am participating is a couple different clinical trials they had to get my consent, 2 different anestheologists explained their parts, the nerve block and the sedation, the nurse came in...I really think we may have seen 50 people! I got an IV, drew some labs, got my nerve block and some versed, then we waited for the plastic surgeon to finish his case and wait for the room to be cleaned. I didn't end up going in until after 3:00pm. Surgery went well and apparently quicker than they expected (hopefully that is a good thing?!) I got to the floor about 8:00pm. They had me up and walking that night! I only walked to the next room since I was pretty out of it and dizzy. It was nice to have my family there when I woke up! We tried a couple different pain meds while I was there, my pain seemed to be under control, I was eating and walking so I got to go home Tuesday afternoon. Tuesday night was rough and I wish I would have stayed one more night but wednesday seemed to be good. Wednesday night was again rough and thursday was not a good day. I noticed my ankles were swollen so we called the nurse and they wanted me to come in right away. We left right then and I didn't take anything for nausea or pain, the car ride really pushed me over the edge. We talked to Victoria and the Plastic surgeons PA and they wanted to change my pain meds and go down the the acute care center (like the ER). I got wheeled down to the ACC where we told the whole story again. The docs down there wanted to give me a liter of fluid! Luckily they thought that through and just gave me some zofran and dilaudid and we hung out for 5 hours. Thursday night was much better on new pain meds and a muscle relaxer, I actually slept pretty decent. Today (friday) we went up to the University of Utah to get an ultrasound of my legs, they wanted to be sure I didn't have a blood clot, since the swelling started 3 days after surgery. The ultrasound was clear, my labs came back and all looked good! Very relieving. As long as I take my meds every 3-4 hours I can stay on top of the pain and I feel pretty good. I still get a little dizzy when I change positions and have to be careful about using my arms. I can't even open my pill bottles. I though it would just be nice to have Ryan here, which it is, but I really need him! I am so blessed he was able to get time off, I don't know what I would do without him! For now we are just hanging out (feet up) until the doctor appointment on Tuesday when I will hopefully get one drain out on each side. I have 2 drains on each side, hopefully 2 will come out next week and the other 2 the week after! That will be glorious!