iPort Surgery

My transition to iHeather is complete.  I thought that happened last year when I finally entered the world of Smartphones/iPhones.  NOW I have a charging port installed in my chest.  iHeather lives.

All-in-all, the surgery was not bad at all.  As with everything so far, the anticipation and the working myself up over it all is the worst part.

Before:

Petrified, I think.  Seeing my life flash before my eyes.  But this was also around the time I got the happy-relaxer medicine too, so not completely sure.

After:

Complete with bed head, puffy eyes, elephant warrior, and Star Trek badge.  I didn't want to post this picture, cuz, Gross, but if there ever is a time that a stranger is looking up Breast Cancer blogs, they might come across mine.  I've read and seen many pictures of other fellow fighter's operations and knowledge is always a good thing.  So there it is.

The whole process was, again, squeamish, but very cool.  They wheeled me into the operating room still awake and got me situated on the table.  They told me everything that they were going to do, and if they couldn't find a certain vein in my chest, they would go after a vein in my neck instead, which is all perfectly fine and normal.  But I had my fingers crossed for keeping it in my chest.  Let's keep it simple, people.  They strapped me in, painted me with all this operating stuff on my chest and neck.   I was shivering and they apologized for all the cold things they were putting on my skin.  Apologies and concern about my comfort are always appreciated!  They were listening to 60s motown, and assured me that they were going to put me out before any actual operating happened.  And.........Thaaaat's all I remember.

So then I woke up in recovery, it was strange.  It was like, boom, all of a sudden my brain was on and talking at me rapidly.   I was super relaxed and warm and I had this overwhelming feeling of intense gratitude for every medical professional on the planet.  The first question I asked the nurse next to me was "Did they reach the vein in my chest, or did they have to go for my neck?"  She didn't know, but Superman and my amazing, beautiful, intelligent, curly-haired surgeon (i love her, can you tell?) came in shortly afterwards and filled me in.  Everything went swimmingly and without any complications what-so-ever.  YES!

So they sent me away with pain medicine.  I was home before 11am.  I haven't had any reactions to the anesthesia or pain meds.  yeay!  No nausea!  I remember battling with nausea when I got my wisdom teeth pulled out years ago.

My chest and arm are a little sore, particularly when I move it, but everything else is great!  All said and done, I'll be extremely glad I had this put in.  Whew!

I'm now spending my afternoon on the couch, hanging with the dogs, Superman, and college freshman daughter who just got home from class.  Superman is taking a nap, and Superdaughter is graciously allowing me to catch up on Downton Abbey with no complaints.

I'm hoping to go to work tomorrow, then I'm ready to rumble on Wednesday.  Time to get that liquid gold inserted into my iPort and beat this stupid thing to a pulp.