Feb 2, 2019 - This past Wed, Jan 30, I had a brief (70 min) outpatient surgery at Sibley Hospital. Dr. Brown was concerned about an area of inflammation on my left breast and wanted to clean out the area just in case an infection was brewing. The procedure involved opening the pocket, removing the expander (temporary implant), irrigating the entire area, and closing me up. (See my last post for more on this.) I came out of surgery with another drain and a Prevena wound vac motor I have to carry around.
The team at Sibley was great. The anesthesiologist was Dr. Darren Bazini, who was warm and funny; the nurses took great care of me; and of course Dr. Brown was as kind and caring as always. It's interesting to see the different ways hospitals and surgical centers deal with getting you into the operating room and onto the table. For my bilateral salpingo-oophorectomy (removal of Fallopian tubes and ovaries), they wheeled me to the door of the operating room, and then had me walk in and climb on the table. For a couple of surgeries including this one, they wheeled the bed right next to the operating table, made them the same height, and then had me scooch myself onto the table. For #4, once I was on the table, they had me sit up to get electrodes taped to my back (heart monitoring), secured my IV arm out to the right on a board, and then put a mask on my face. That's the last thing I remember.
I'm fortunate that so far, I've had no side effects from anesthesia. No real nausea to speak of, thank goodness.
I have an appointment for next Thursday with Dr. Brown. He'll remove the Prevena wound vac that's been covering my incision and helping it heal. Assuming the fluid coming from the drain is low enough, I'll get that out, too. (Fingers crossed!) They are more of a nuisance than anything else. I have to carry the drain and the Prevena motor around in a short apron in front of me, and I have to sleep on my back, which I hate! I'm anxious to hear more from Dr. Brown about what he did/saw during the surgery. According to his medical assistant, the report on the fluid they cultured said no sign of infection, which is good news.
Fortunately I had a puzzle I hadn't done yet, so of course I had to work on it!
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