Under the Knife

Yesterday was a few firsts for me.  I had my first IV, my first anesthesia and my first (and hopefully last) sentinel node biopsy.  It was along day, but hopefully we have done what was needed to stop this melanoma again (at least for a while).

We headed to Bethesda early around 0500 and arrived in good time and found good parking.  I spent four hours in Nuclear Medicine as they injected some radioactive stuff in me and waited to see which way my lymph system moved the shit.  At first it wasn't appearing to move by after several pictures and procedures, they had the data they needed to proceed.  This was the most painful part of the day.  Keeping my arms above my head, even laying down, and not able to move at all to get comfortable became very painful.  After the last procedure, both my shoulders were completely numb.

Back to the APU then to the Pain Center.  Here I was prepared for surgery.  An IV was put in and I was given a block in my arm and armpit.  The block was weird.  As soon as it went in, I lost all feeling and use of my right arm.  It felt as if my arm was resting in my lap, but it was actually falling off to the side.  Weird.  The Intern tasked with setting up my IV was very nervous.  He was actually shaking as he tried to get the needle in my vein.  I am always a challenge when getting stuck.  I felt sorry for the young lad.

To toe OR and after a few breaths into the mask, I was gone.  I came to feeling as if someone was lifting my legs every 30 seconds or so.  It was actually a compression system that kept my blood flowing out of my legs.  I had just a little pain in my armpit and my arm was still a little numb.  After a while I was moved to the APU and Lisa came in.  I recovered nicely after a small bout of nausea as I moved into the chair.  Ginger Ale helped and I munched on my first food of the day, graham crackers. 

I took my required pee, got dressed and we were headed out sometime before 1900.  Quite a day.

We got home and I camped out on the couch while my baby babied me.  I fell asleep after eating a sandwich and went to bed with a few welcome Percocet. 

I slept ok and am doing well today.  I'm trying to schedule my follow up appointment now where I get the pathology results and they check out my incisions.  It looks like they only took out a small piece of my tattoo and they didn't cut out Brandi's name. 

Let the healing begin...