I had my operation on Wednesday May 17th to remove the lump and some lymph nodes. I had an early start. I was told the day before the operation to ring the hospital at 7.35 to check that they had a bed for me. So I rang at the time they told me to only they didn't rely. I spent the next half an hour ringing them with no joy so at about 8 am myself and my mum decided to go out to the hospital anyway as it was highly likely they did have a bed for me. I kept ringing them on the way to the hospital and they eventually answered when got there and said yes there was a bed for me and to come on out. I didn't bother bother telling them I was already there and I went and waited my turn at Admissions. When it was my turn I was sent to the Ambulatory Day Care ward. When I got there a nurse brought me to my bed. I changed into the gown they left for me. After a few minutes the nurse came back to do my blood pressure check and she put the lovely surgical stockings on me.
After another little bit of a wait my breast care nurse came to the ward to explain what was going to happen during surgery and to explain the side effects from surgery. Once that was done I was brought down to nuclear medicine to get the injection to show up my lymph nodes. I got four injections into my nipple. It was a little bit painful when getting the injections. I was then brought back up to the ward to wait for my operation.
A while later one of the surgical team came to me and asked me the usual questions. I told her I had a bit of a cough so she went off to check that the anaesthetist was happy to do the operation. After a wait of a couple of hours she came back and said the anaesthetist was happy to go ahead but they wanted me to have a chest ex-ray first which I had after another little bit of a wait. Was that was done I was brought back to the ward.
Eventually they came to take me down to theatre. I was brought down on my bed and when I got down to the waiting area I transferred onto the theatre bed. I was then brought down to the anesthetic room and put to sleep.
When I woke I was back on the ward. I was given a couple slices of toast and a cup of tea. I then rang my mother to let her know that the operation was done so she came out to the hospital. I wasn't sure if I was going home as I was still feeling quite groggy so she went out to the nurses station to ask and they said that I was ok to go home. The nurse then came to discharge me, I had to go the toilet first though. Once that was done we were good to go, the nurse offered to get me a wheelchair but I just wanted to go so Mum took my arm and we left the hospital.
I got a letter about two weeks after the operation with an appointment for the 8th of June for my results. I brought my aunt with me for moral support as my mother was away. After a wait of 45 minutes I was called by my surgeon. We went into his consulting room and he had a look at my wounds and was happy with how they looked. One I put my top back on he gave me the results of my operation. He had good and bad news for me. The good news was he got all the cancer first go but the bad news was that they found some cancer in one of my lymph nodes that he took so he was sending me for CT scan and a nuclear bone scan. He asked me if I had any questions so I asked about the HER2a result and he told me at was negative and he showed me the result on the computer.
Before we left Rose my breast care nurse came in and gave me the appointment letter for the scans which were booked for 12th June. I then had to get a prescription for tablet to help prevent an reaction to the CT contrast. Once I got that we left.
