www.flickr.com

Saturday, June 17, 2006

Talking to Myself - pre-surgery work and 3 doctors appts - one scare

Once again, I find that almost another week has gone by without my blogging. I have been busy at all of the many mundane and physical tasks required to prepare for this surgery. These are probably not of interest to anyone but me. However, I feel compelled to blog them for my own reading pleasure in the future when I look back and think "what was I doing?"

Well, this is what I have done since Monday, June 12. Shopped for film, photos, dog gravel and iron tablets (more on that one later), saw my breast surgeon, Dr. K (always a pleasure and once again a pleasure today - got to look at the MRI pictures of my breasts - lots of different views - big, small and one that could be rotated in 3D - very cool!), went to two different Michael's stores to buy plaster molds for the bust cast of my current breast profile, Petco for doggie pack (they had no idea what I was talking about, even though I had purchased one there before), Painting class where I completed a painting for use on the new El Camino Hospital Thanksgiving cards, painted the kitchen, cleaned mini-blinds and vacuumed top of kitchen cupboards. And that was all just on Tuesday!

On to Wednesday. Quigong class, got the car washed (Wednesday - ladies day - $2 cheaper - besides, it was sunny), over to Susan's to sew the border on my wall hanging and the seam on the window curtain, have artistic photos taken of my current breast profile. Had the chance to sit and chat with Susan and look at the pre-mastectomy photos from last year and the new ones she just took. I must say that she did an excellent job - very artistic! The photos were beautiful and I am very proud of them. Thanks Susan! Can't wait to do the final set with my new breasts! Then, it was off to see Joan (since Melissa moved to Idaho) for the all important eyebrow design (waxing, trimming, shaping) so that I can look good for my surgery, back home for more cleaning (a never ending task).

Thursday - Started off with Weight Watchers - still 2 lbs from maintenance - darn - so close, yet so far. Really wanted to get there before surgery. Next, stopped off at the Post Office and Grocery Store. Home to walk the dogs, mow and edge my lawn and the neighbors (since she will be so kind as to do this over the next 6 weeks when I can't), some more gardening, cleaned the dogs yard and spread clean gravel and then hop in the shower to go see my Plastic Surgeon.

Bad news! My anemia from giving blood will prevent me from surgery, Dr W said. My hemoglobin was at 9.3 and needed to be at least 10.5. What devastation! To have come this far and have it canceled. Ugh! I had one more chance at a blood test on Friday. Fortunately, my guardian angel was looking after me earlier in the week and prompted my to buy iron tablets on Monday. I had been taking one a day and hoping that was enough to bring me back. My weight was good although still 1 lb - yes 1 lb overweight! Darn! I really wanted to go into surgery at a normal BMI and not overweight. 1 lb! So close.

Stopped in to get my EKG before heading off to see Suzanne, my healer. Had a very nice session of Reiki and Pranic Healing where she focused on treating the anemia. Called in all of my patrons - St. Jude (Patron Saint of Hopeless Causes), Mother Mary and all of the strong spiritual powers of the West, East and above as well as Father Aloyisius of my trip to San Gabriel Mission in May. I was very tired but felt relaxed and energized after the session. I finally arrived back home about 9:30PM and just relaxed the rest of the evening, feeling like I needed rest and sleep to help my body recover from the devastating effects of all of the testing and blood loss of the last few months.

Friday morning, I awoke with trepidation. Please let me pass this blood test. I don't think I ever wanted to pass a test so badly in my life. I went to the hospital early to have my blood drawn in order to get the results as soon as possible. As usual, I had a red sticker (STAT) on my blood form - go straight to the head of the line - makes other people mad but, hey, they probably don't have to go in as often as I do. The blood was drawn and I headed off to OB/GYN for my trans-vaginal ultrasound to look at the cyst on my ovary.

I told my GYN, Dr. N about the blood problem and she said there was something that we could do about it, even in 3 days. All the time we were talking, she was lubing up this huge probe - about the size of a golf ball - as I looked on in bland fascination. My mind was on the blood and not really on what she was doing until she reached down and said, "Just a little push here" and I realized that huge thing was going up inside me! She moved up and showed me my bladder and then went in search of my uterous. "There it is", she said. I couldn't really see anything but a shadowy dent. Then, she said, "There is the cyst". It looked HUGE. But apparently, it was magnified. She measured it - 1.768cm (less than 1 in). She said it was soft and definitely a simple cyst which "never turns into cancer". Don't worry about it. However, she told me that I am not very photogenic - meaning my insides and not my face - I hope so anyway. She suggested I go down to radiology where they have a better ultrasound and can get a better picture. An appointment was scheduled for August (after surgery and recovery).

Back to the blood. My blood work came back in an amazing 45 minutes. The hemoglobin was 10.7! Yeah! I was so relieved and excited. The surgery was on. My GYN said that she would still like to see it higher and asked about the iron I was taking. I told her I didn't know at which point she said, you have been through enough and gave me her private line to call her and read the label off the bottle. I did that when I got home. Turns out I had bought the right iron after all. She upped the dosage for the weekend and said my Hg should be even higher by Tuesday.

After all of that, I headed off to Target to buy a tub to do the plaster cast in and headed home. My friend, Cathy, came over and we had lunch, Starbuck's, did some shopping (books and beads for my recovery period) and then came back to the messy work of doing a plaster mold of my chest/breast. After she left, I changed the motion detector, thief lights outside the garage that have been burned out for over a year, hung my wall hanging up in the dining room, did some more cleaning and retired to bed at about 1:00AM.

This morning, it is sunny and hot. After opening all the windows and doors, the dogs and I headed off for a walk. Coming back, I read the meters for PG&E before I forget with all of the other preparations. Now is the time for some more cleaning, painting and gardening. I am going to need the 10 hours they put me out in surgery just to rest!

Don't know if there will be another post before surgery or not............. Only 3 more days!

1 Comments:

At 12:14 PM, Blogger andrea said...

i know you're already through your surgery but i wanted you to know that we were thinking about you.

good luck on your recovery! see you soon.

 

Post a Comment

<< Home