because of the location of my tumour (towards the bottom of my sternum, in the cartilage where the rib joins the sternum) the op took out: the front of three ribs and half the sternum itself. The op took about 3.5-4 hours and I was given a spinal painkiller when I went in - this lasted for a considerable time afterwards so I'm glad that I opted for it. The operation incision was around 11inches from right to left close under my breasts (the surgeon did this deliberately to minimise visibility if I chose to wear a bikini etc.. ! She said that if she was doing the same op on a man, they would make the incision vertically, otherwise the scar could give the impression of 'moobs'. I think this demonstrated the care and attention the surgeon took with the patient.
When I came round they removed the tube from my mouth (and I was promptly sick!) leaving me with two chest drains and about 10 wires. I stayed in the ICU overnight and was moved upstairs to the ward the following morning where some of the wires were removed. I was on a few tablets: amitriptyline being one of the stronger ones, but also some normal tablets including ibuprofen and paracetamol and something else to protect my stomach from all the tablets. I also had my DVT socks on and a blood thinner injection every night (note: this stings like hell!).
In the days following the op, the hardest thing was eating, sleeping and coughing. I was hungry but despite the great food, when it came, I just couldn't eat much. The painkillers also made me constipated, just to add another thing to be dealing with. Sleeping was difficult due to the pain and also the chest drains meaning that I could only sleep on my back and everything was generally just uncomfortable. And coughing. Oh my goodness - the pain. I was given a 'teddy bear' (a rolled up towel) and every time I needed to cough I had to squeeze it tight against my chest but it was so hard in the early days to get enough cough behind any phlegm and coughing hard just hurt so much. But the staff reiterate that getting any fluid up is really important to prevent an infection in the lungs.
The day after the op I was up and about - as the surgeon said 'your legs aren't affected' - which helped to get me moving, reducing DVT and infection risk.
The chest drains were monitored daily - I needed to get down to less than 100ml to be able to go home but I just kept producing the fluid - meaning I stayed a few extra days in hospital. So every day, I would load both onto my trolley and do a circular walk around the wing and when I was feeling a bit better, went with my partner down to the cafe. I bought a little shopping bag to carry the chest drains in. Getting up, washed and dressed without a doubt helped my recovery, even when I just didn't feel like it.
When they took the main chest drain out, the nurses told me to breath in and out deeply then hold my breath, then - yank!- in one smooth movement they pulled the tube but it was so long! I'll be honest that was the first time I had a cry - it was so painful. The second one eventually was removed but thankfully was less painful. Apart from the sides and beneath the scar the op has damaged the nerves, so I can feel nothing in the centre from where my sternum used to be.
Even just post-op, I could see the scar was very neat and tidy, albeit long, but there was a lot of bruising and swelling to go down which took a good few weeks.
On the 9th day I left to go home.
