On the sofa in The Man’s house, him making dinner and all is well. 

All seemed to take a very long time – although of course I was knocked out for 80% of that time. The surgery itself I don’t think took much more than an hour or so, the tecovery time was as long if not longer. I did get some lovely pain meds in the recovery room which more than made up for that…the first time I have been really enjoyably stoned from meds in this whole saga. Disappointedly starting to wear off now :(. Rare to get ‘legitimate’ highs….

It’s sore, but so far manageable with the pain meds – stoned ones and regular ones. The lovely surgeon said she would managed it through just one incision which she aimed to make in a natural fold of skin in my armpit. I think she took around 4 lymph nodes out as well of course as the non existent lump and around a centimeter around it. During the ultrasound before the procedure, they could only find the marker, not any lump, and it was 6mm from the surface of the skin. All good news :). 

So I currently have dressings across the outside of my left boob extending through and across my underarm and another one on my right upper chest where the portocath had been removed. Important to have even bandaging I find. 

I will get the results in a week from the lovely surgeon. All signs are positive – unfortunately I didn’t get a chance to see her post surgery but I am not sure how much should would have told me anyway. 

One thing I’m pissed off about is that I got a large dose of horrible steroids…3 times the reduced dose I had negotiated for the last 6 Taxols. I should have told the anesthetist I didn’t want them but forgot in the pre surgery meeting with here. So, here goes binge eating, erratic sleep and more swelling for the next few days :(. 

Oh – and how could we escape without a story from the stunningly incompetent Nurse Manuel. Apart from being a general space cadet, big time, her parting shot was to remove the canula from my hand…managing to do it wrong so blood pumped out on the floor, on my shoe and around the general area. Sounds more dramatic than it actually was, but a fuck up nonetheless. Not that she seemed remote phased by it – The Man actually put tissue on the floor to cover up the splatter – and we left with that still there. 

So – now still mildly stoned, medium in pain, largely tired and very, very relieved it is over and delighted to be chilling on the sofa :).