No More Tittie Twisters
We couldn't have been more lucky than to have such a beautiful Sunday before surgery! We played outside all day long! The boys played football, Rylie gave me lots of snugs, we had Steak and S'mores. We soaked all of the day in. I couldn't be more grateful to be able to have such a wonderful day with the family!
Day 1: Surgery Day arrived on April 25th. What seemed like the longest wait ever creeped up faster than I anticipated.
I dropped the kids off for school one last time for the school year and Jake and I set off for the hospital. It was a whirlwind after that. We met with the OR nurses, the anesthesiologist, and the surgeon. My reconstruction surgeon (for May 9th procedure) even stopped in. I was wheeled off to nuclear medicine, which was NOT pleasant. They injected some isotope into my nipple to "light up" my lymph nodes so the surgeon could find them during surgery. I would be ok never having to take that injection again!
After about three hours of prepped, I was wheeled into the OR for my double, simple, skin sparing, not nipple sparing double mastectomy. Staring at the bright lights above me, my surgeon told me to "pick my dream...to go back to Portugal....and to go to sleep." I felt her hold my hand as I fell asleep.
Waking up took a little longer than normal. Might be because it's my first time being under....or because I have sleep apnea tendencies. I did NOT wake up timely not gracefully. My wonderful, bearded nurse, was feeding me ice chips as I woke up....and I had to tell him to stop because I was short of breath. He told me it was likely because they had me wrapped up so tight. My oxygen was at 100%. I told him it was getting worse. I found myself in a full on panic attack. He tried to soothe me with lavender aromatherapy and some calm music. The drugs would keep making me fall asleep and then I'd stop breathing. I'd wake up to the nurse yelling at me again, "Amber! Take a deep breath!" The next thing I remember is waking up in my hospital room with Jake by my side. It was still a struggle to keep my eyes open. I remember my mom popping in, my aunt, my d