Surgery update - Friday 23 January 2015. Well, Alison and I arrived at the Western General for 0745 yesterday morning. I was the first patient in for what turned out for the staff to be a usual busy day. After chats with the two surgeons doing the op, and two anaesthetists, involving much ticking of forms and each asking who I was and when I was born (for security purposes and to ensure they got the right bloke), whilst being fussed over by Lisa, my brilliant nurse, and following a change into a rather fetching gown, with two arm bands and one leg band (all with name, d.o.b. and barcode) - just in case they cut off a limb and wanted to match it to the right person (?), I was wheeled through to theatre at about 0900. I dont mind telling you that I was rather anxious before the operation, but as it turned out, I had nothing to worry about. Just before I went through the doors into theatre, a rather large syringe-full of anaesthetic was pumped into my left hand and the next thing I knew I was waking up, feeling extremely groggy and not quite with it in the recovery room about 2 hours later, with absolutely no recollection of the operation! It turns out that the surgeon made an incision in my right underam and removed two lymph nodes for biopsy, and then cut down to the muscle an area of skin about 4 by 2 on my lower right arm, stuck or stitched everything back together and wrapped up my arm in bandage. The surgeon initially thought that I would require a skin graft to replace the area of skin cut out, mainly as Im so slim (his words, not mine - ahem), but it turned out they managed to stitch things back together without recourse to taking extra skin from my thigh. This does however mean that my arm feels extremely tight (and as I write this, extremely itchy)! Im now back home after Alison came to pick me up mid-afternoon - thanks babes!xx Now for at least two weeks of painkillers and rest so that the skin on my right arm and underarm can recover. No heavy lifting, no driving, no raising my right arm above my head. Bandage off in a weeks time and stitches out after a further week. I have to say that every single member of staff at the hospital made every effort to ease my way through the day, and were attentive, helpful, considerate and just basically brilliant. They did a fantastic job, and I have nothing but full praise for the NHS - not that Id want to go through this again! There will be follow up checks very 3 to 6 months, but hopefully the worst is now over...
Posted on: Fri, 23 Jan 2015 15:42:44 +0000
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