De-Tubing & Shoulder Issues

On Sunday, January 9th I went back to Salt Lake with Chase so I could have my surgical follow-up with Dr. Agarwal the next day, Monday the 10th. Chase took me to Collin & Tiffany's house where I spent the night. It's always fun to go see them, and that funny little guy, Landon!

The next morning Tiffany took me up to the Huntsman for my appointment. She has been so good about hauling me up there, with baby in tow and all. Not really a convenient thing to do, but she's always so willing, bless her heart!

I had high, high hopes of having all three of my drain tubes pulled. I had put up with those miserable things for almost three weeks. The holes where they enter my body get very tender and sore. There are sutures in my skin that hold them in place, and then there's those ridiculous drain "grenades" (don't know what they're really called - don't care) that I have to keep pinned to my pants at all times. Cute, huh? Having a decent night's sleep has been next to impossible with those stupid things coming out of my back.

My incisions seem to be healing okay, and the rash on my back had improved quite a bit. When my doctor at home, Dr. Weed saw the rash, she wrote me a prescription for a steroid cream, which has finally started to help clear it up. Unfortunately Dr. Agarwal would only pull two of the tubes, still leaving me with one remeaing tube hanging out of the "mini-boob" on my back. Bummer! They assured me that I didn't want them out too soon, which can result in fluid accumulation, then infection (there's some nifty medical term for that, but you think I can remember those terms? No way!). Infection is not a good thing, so I needed to quit whining.

After my appointment, Tiffany and I went to the Bistro on the 6th floor of the Huntsman and had an early lunch. We just killed time until I heard from Curtis, a Dillon friend who was my ride home. We met him at the Gateway Mall, and back to Dillon we went. Whirlwind trip! Dillon to Salt Lake on Sunday afternoon, appointment Monday morning, and back to Dillon Monday afternoon.

I had another Herceptin IV appointment in Rexburg on Friday(On the Road Again!). By then my lone drain tube had drained less than 25 ml two days in a row, 18ml on Thursday, and 14 ml on Friday. So I talked the PA at Teton Oncology into pulling my last drain tube for me. I don't think he'd ever done it before, so he was a little unsure. I just told him "don't worry, they've cut so many nerves I don't usually feel it - and if you don't do it, I'm going to try talking my husband into doing it!" The thought of going another week trying to get a Doctor at home to pull it... not acceptable! So, Darren, the PA went ahead and pulled it. It was kind of funny- the nurse who stood and watched was kind of freaking out because the tubing never seemed to end. The tube inside me was almost a foot long! I heard Darren tell her as they left the room, "That was kinda fun!" Oh those medical geeks! I was happy though. I'm finally free! The tubes were finally gone!

What's not so liberating are shoulder issues. Nope, the Cortisone shot didn't do anything. So disappointed! After a week or so I finally broke down and made a Physical Therapy appointment. She says I have "impingement" in the joint where the tendons & nerves are getting pinched. I've done the Therapy twice a week for about 3 weeks, and I'm not noticing any major improvement. I have been doing various exercises at home (In this pic I'm doing a shoulder stretch that uses a pulley system that shuts in the door.). I'm getting nervous that I have torn something in there, and PT won't be of help. Am I going to end up needing to see an Orthopedic doctor? I am so sick of Doctors! No offense to my doctor brother, soon-to-be doctor son, and all of my many doctors from the past year, but wow!

Home to Recupe!

On December 26, the day after Christmas, Rich, Chase and I went back home. Thus started the post-surgery recuperation time. What made this surgery a little more challenging than the mastectomy is having incisions and work done on both my back and my chest. This first pic shows my back incision - which goes from my spine to the edge of my armpit. No, it's not suppose to be so red and irritated. It seems that my skin had an allergic reaction to the glue they used to close the incision. If it's not one thing, it's another! GEEZ! The rash spread quite a bit more than this, but I didn't get a pic of the rash at its worstest. Besides being tender and sore, my back was so insanely itchy from the rash, I wanted to get out a BBQ fork to scratch my back. Of course I didn't dare! Fantasized about it though. They use dissolving sutures on the inside. I hope those eventually dissolve OK. And notice the cute skin bulge near my armpit. After cutting out a football-shaped piece of flesh & pulling it together to glue it shut, it leaves a bulge my sister Barb told me is referred to as a "dog-ear". Well, I've been calling it my "mini-bonus-boob". I think mini-boob describes it more accurately than dog-ear does.

And then there's the drain tubes! Oh how I hate those stinking drain tubes! With two coming out of the mini-boob on my back, and one coming out under my right armpit, it pretty well eliminated any comfortable sitting or laying position. So sleep has been an interesting problem. Normally, on my left shoulder would be the one sleep position I could do, but, well, I seem to have injured my left shoulder somehow. I don't know how - all I know is the body is falling apart! So, even though I've never been a back sleeper, there I am every night, trying to lay on my back, on top of that tender, itchy incision, with the mini-boob, with 2 drain tubes hanging out! GEEZ II! The left shoulder got bad enough, I finally made an appointment with my Doctor. I have gone a few months with it hurting, thinking it would go away, thinking that I don't have the time or energy to deal with a hurt shoulder right now. But when you wake up each morning after a big surgery, open one eye, and think "OK, what's aching the most today, my breast, my back, or my tender armpit?" - and the answer ends up being: "My left shoulder aches the worst" - time to get it looked at. My Doctor gave me a cortisone shot in the shoulder joint (not quite as bad as I feared) and told me if it was going to work - it would work in about 24 hours. If it doesn't work, she wrote up a prescription for Physical Therapy. I do not want physical therapy. What a pain. So I definitely had high hopes for the shot.

Here's a pic of my "football". You can also see my mini-boob from a different angle. They took that piece of skin, along with a piece of muscle from my back, and burrowed it under the skin under my armpit. (See the lumpiness and puffiness of my armpit. So sore!) Then they cut away the original incision from my mastectomy, and replaced it with my new football of skin. Because of my radiation, the skin on my chest is darker and blotchier, so that football of very white skin from my back definitely stands out. Eventually the contrast will probably diminish, but the football might always be a little lighter in color. Weird, huh? (Who dreams this stuff up?) They attach the strip of muscle across my chest, giving my chest area a new blood supply coming from my back since that strip of muscle is still attached to my back. The strip is also used as a pocket to hold a small implant for some bulk. Of course, in my case, literally small, cause I wasn't too interested in going bigger than the other side. I'm so sick of being cut up & sewed up, I didn't want to look forward to a future surgery to augment the other girl so I could have a matching bigger set! Forgetabboudit! So lots of time spent wandering around, and sitting around. Recuperation can be pretty boring. Had Chase home for about a week though, so that was nice!

Christmas with the Hills

In the early afternoon of Christmas Eve, Rich and Chase came back to the Huntsman to retrieve me, and I was able to walk outta there on my own steam. Wussy steam, but steam nonetheless. We went straight to the Hill home in Sandy where Fern was busy preparing a Christmas Eve dinner for well over 30 people. So what's another 3 bodies? Well, probably a lot for some people, but nothing for Fern. She's definitely a pro at dinners for large groups. I sat around in a recliner, and Chase helped Fern prepare the Chicken Cordon Bleu. And of course there were potatoes, fabulous salads, rolls, desserts, etc. A lot of the Hill Family attended making for a truly great dinner!

After dinner was a program with lots of musical numbers since there's so

much talent in this family. Chase and Lisa (Marshall's wife) quickly put together a duet of "Oh Come All Ye Faithful" to sing and all of the little kids enacted the Nativity where Taylor & Juli's little guy, Trace, was quite the Joseph- hilarious, in fact- with his Grandpa Al doing a fine job as the donkey.

Then we got to watch everyone open some gifts. I'm not sure how she did it, with so little notice that we were coming, but Fern also had a gift for me, Rich & Chase. She gave me a very nice zip up top. Hard to beat Christmas Eve with the Hills!

Christmas morning we got to sleep-in some. That was nice. After spending a few nights in the hospital where they come and take vitals and such every few hours, day & night, this was the best sleep I've had in awhile. Dan, Andrea and their four kids were there spending Christmas Day, so we got to see some of their Christmas fun. Then we went to the Smith home where Conrad and Jamie were, to spend a few hours with them and their girls. Kylie came out the front door with Conrad as we got out of the car. I could see her face just drop when she saw me with my ultra-short hair. I could almost see her little mind thinking, "Nope, that's not the grandma I remember." So she wasn't her usual "come play with me grandma" self. I was kinda bummed, but I guess I shouldn't be surprised; I don't even recognize myself sometimes! They said Kylie had been quite the gift opening machine early that morning so we were excited to see her and Reese open our gifts. Such cute little girls!

We then headed back to the Hill home where a lot of the family gathered together again for a Christmas night dinner of soups, rolls, and more goodies. There's just not a more relaxing, fun, family-oriented place to be than with the Hills. Thank you so much Fern and Allen for letting us come and join in on your family festivities!