Lisa's F-Cancer Blog

My hand is still a bit swollen; I guess it won’t go down overnight. Dr. McAuliffe said to keep my arm elevated when possible. She notified Dr. Brufsky about the DVT and he too found it very unusual.

Of course the blood thinner medication is making me nauseous, when it supposedly doesn’t have any side effects. I googled this one, and something like 3% get it. Yay me.

Dr. McAuliffe said the surgical pathology results look great, with only a tiny spot of residual cancer, downstaging after neoadjuvant immunochemotherapy to Stage Ia (ypT1a N0). Yeah, I don’t know what that gibberish means either. I just see downstaging and Stage Ia and that’s pretty damn good! I’ll get more details and explanation when I see Dr. Brufsky on the 12th.

Yesterday I noticed that my right hand was slightly swollen. You really have to look closely to see it. I messaged my surgeon to be on the safe side. The nurse and I traded messages today; she had me send a picture of my hands. She could see the swelling and said she wanted to rule out a blood clot. She didn’t think I had one, especially since I have no pain, but to be safe she said she was trying to get me an appointment with radiology. If she was unsuccessful, she said I would have to go to the ED.

At the end of the day, she told me she got an appointment at a UPMC location about 30 minutes north of us (another one to add to my list). Aaron was at work, so Dad drove me. The ultrasound started at my neck and went down to my wrist. The tech repeatedly pressed down on my skin to check the blood flow. Then we waited for the radiologist to look at the results and call my surgeon.

The tech called my name and said they recommended I go to the ED in the same building, but he was not allowed to tell me why. He walked us over there, at which point I learned that my surgeon had called Aaron (since he’s been at every appointment with me, she assumed he was with me) and was explaining the results. She then called my phone to loop me and Dad in.

I do have a blood clot (DVT) in my arm that was caught early. She told us to tell the ED it was a DVT, which immediately sped things up. The ED doctor explained what was going on and said the treatment is to go on blood thinners for 3-6 months. They have a therapeutic effect within two hours and don’t interact with much. I got my first dose pretty quickly and was discharged shortly thereafter. Dad commented that it was the shortest ED visit he had ever experienced and we agreed that everyone was super nice.

As is typical, I’m the outlier. My surgeon said in all her years she had never seen this for my kind of surgery. I always knew I was special!

Feeling grateful tonight.

I was wondering why my left wrist hurt so much. I finally realized this morning — it’s where the IV was. Duh!

I’ve been sleeping a lot and trying to stay on top of the pain, which is mostly tolerable. My right hand is slightly swollen – I don’t know if that’s normal. I have to wear a sports bra 24/7, but that’s easy. It’s much harder to be so reliant on others because of my arm restrictions. It’s also difficult to know what is ok and what isn’t, since the doctor said I could use it very minimally, with no repetitive movements. 

The results came back, but they’re too technical for me to decipher; I’m waiting for the doctor to send an explanatory message. One part, however, was clear: the lymph node was negative for cancer! This hopefully means that it hasn’t spread!  

I forgot to mention the surgery itself went smoothly! As expected, only one lymph node was removed for testing. The results won’t come back for a while. It could be as short as two days or a lot longer, depending on the lab staffing.

I’m here! A little worse for wear, but doing ok.

Apparently my call time was TWO hours before surgery! I had a shitty night’s sleep, and could have used more of it! There’s a lot to the pre-surgery process, though, including the important act of waiting. Can’t skip that.

(Aaron transcribing now. After two short paragraphs of left-handed typing, Lisa was fed up.)

I was in a pre-surgery room (with a curtain) until surgery. I had to don the latest in hospital fashion and take everything off, including my wedding ring. Vitals were taken as always. Then the dreaded IV. I asked if it had to be in my hand. Thankfully she was able to put it in my wrist. I don’t know if that was any less painful!

I was then visited by the surgeon and anesthesiologist. After squaring away what was going to happen, their two nurses came in to get everything ready. I was given two anti-nausea pills since I tend to have trouble with anesthesia. Just before I was pulled away, I gave Aaron my hearing devices. They then gave me some “happy” drugs in my IV. I seem to have a memory of them making me a little sick on the way to the operating room. The last thing I remember is transferring to another bed in the operating room.

The next thing I remember is waking up in recovery like I was waking up from a nap. I kept dozing off, so they kept me in there for a bit. Eventually I moved to another post-op recovery room with a curtain. I was finally able to eat and drink but could barely eat because my mouth was so dry from the medicine. I also have a sore throat from the intubation.

The recovery team kept saying Aaron was on his way, only he never arrived. They eventually called his cell and asked where he was. He was sitting in the waiting room the whole time, but the people there forgot to get him.

I was discharged shortly thereafter, came home, and promptly took an almost 4 hour nap. I woke up just as my parents arrived. I’m feeling better than I thought I would after the anesthesia. I do feel some pain and have directions to take Tylenol and ibuprofen.

Now I get to boss my family around for the next two weeks!