Mastectomy - Surgery part one and coming home - 16th September 2019

Monday 16th September - arrival to the hospital. My god I was actually quite calm. For a mastectomy, you need to be pretty organised before going in. I had organised food for two weeks after coming home as I wasn't allowed to lift or do anything. Not even making a cup of tea. So I sorted the food, organised cleaners, bought V shape pillows for comfort, and there is also a lovely group on Facebook, Jens' Friends that make post mastectomy pillows for free, you just pay a donation or delivery charge, totally at your discretion. I also bought button up tops for ease and comfort for wearing at home as lifting your arms to put tops on and off is really difficult and not recommended.

Before arriving at Nuffield, I had to go to Poole Hospital to have a blue dye injected into me as the surgeon was removing my sentinel lymph nodes for biopsies. Sentinel lymph node biopsy (SLNB) Identifies whether the sentinel lymph node (the first lymph node that the cancer cells are most likely to spread to) is clear of cancer cells. Sometimes called sentinel node biopsy (SNB). I then rushed back to Bournemouth to be checked in. Skene came in to greet me, followed by Guy, who was my anaesthetist, to do the pre op checks. I was then told I was 2nd or 3rd on the list, I can't remember exactly, but it was going to be around 10.30am. Eek, it now got very real. Ben and I sat in my room, which was like a hotel room to be fair. TV on, I settled myself in. Within no time the team came to get me, and I walked down to surgery, leaving a very distraught husband behind.

Operation Time

I think the op was approx 4 hours in total. I remember coming around in recovery, very dazed, itchy and completely out of it. Ben was there in my room, and I was very quickly introduced to lots of different carers. All the nursing staff were lovely. I was checked on every 20 minutes or so, or at least it seemed like that. Morphine given to eliminate the pain, along with paracetamol and ibrupofen at different intervals. I wont lie, the pain was unbelievable, but the nurses are very good at managing this and making sure you are ok. I was encouraged to eat something as it was around 3.30pm at this time, so I had gone a while without eating as NIL By MOUTH from midnight the evening before. I had wound drains inserted, which drain blood and fluid away from the site. These have to be emptied every day at 8am and the amount of fluid is measured. Fresh bags are attached daily, (which you can do yourself at home if necessary) and once the liquid is down to 50ml per day for a couple of days they can be removed. This was done in outpatients, and is the weirdest feeling. It feels like a worm being pulled out of your upper abdomen area! My drains were in for around a week. I stayed in hospital for 2 nights, and was allowed to go home to rest and recover, but on day 7 I had an unexpected trip back to the hospital.

"A haematoma after a breast surgery can make one of the breasts appear larger than the other and can create a markedly swollen bruise on the surface."

I hadn't felt very well during the day of the 23rd September, my wound site had been itching and it just felt different. Around 4am I woke up and could feel something dripping down my stomach. I crept to bathroom and realised I was bleeding from my wound and the mastectomy side was expanding, quickly. We phoned the hospital who advised us to come in. Mr Skene was called and was with me by 7am. The night staff were all desperately trying to drain the blood from my drain whilst we waited to know what to do. Basically I had suffered a haematoma to the site and it had to be removed. I remember fainting at some point, there were a lot of medical staff rushing around. I woke up to Ben, calling out my name. I think he was petrified at what was going on! Skene had morning clinic in Bournemouth, so the nursing staff prepared me for mid morning surgery. The site of the expander port and the implant had sustained a bleed and it had got too big to drain. So the port was repositioned to under my arm and the liquid drained away. Another over night stay in hospital whilst I recovered from that, then I was discharged around dinner time with strict instructions! DO NOTHING!!

“Back at home involved lots of resting, sleeping and box sets! No cooking, cleaning, lifting, even showering was not on the cards without help.” Just remember during this time, even though you may feel well, it is vital to do nothing and let others care for you. Even repositioning in bed is hard because you are unable to lean so you have to find other ways of getting around. I only had one side done to start with and that was hard enough, I can imagine if a bilateral mastectomy is performed you would need someone on hand for a good few weeks.

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