Tuesday, March 10, 2009

Right Axillary Node Dissection

Today is the day I go back in for the doctor to remove more nodes. They'll take out as many as they need to in order to see if the cancer is spreading. At least this time I am having this procedure in the Day Surgery Department and if all goes well, I should be home later today.

When Dave and I arrive at the hospital, we run into one of the Associate Pastor's from our church, John Baker in the parking lot. He's actually there to see me and another high school student who happened to be at the same hospital. We enjoyed our time talking with John and praying before I went in for my procedure.

When I get back in the pre-op area, the nurses are told that I had had allergic reaction the week before so they put Benadryl into my IV. This knocks me out quickly, so the time passes quickly before I go under for the procedure. They put me out again under a general anesthesia so the next thing I know, I'm in post-op feeling massive amounts of pain under my right arm. It was ridiculous how bad the pain was, I described it to the nurse that it felt like someone just started punching me under the arm and wouldn't stop. They had given me a Lortab which didn't touch the pain and finally they gave me some Demerol. Much better, I usually say I have a high threshold for pain, but not this time. Definitely something I don't want to go through again.

I do end up getting discharged and am sent home, but this time I am in a lot more pain than I remember from the previous surgery the week before. I manage the pain with the Lortab and this time use some ice packs under my arm. Oh, this was the best advice I had received and I kept the ice bags under my arm for the first few days. This really helped reduce the pain, thank God. Again, I'm glad to be home and hope that my recovery goes well so that I can be helpful to Dave next week for his surgery.

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