Reconstruction Surgery Completed

Wow it has been a really long time since I posted. We have been so busy getting ready for Christmas and my surgery that the time just flew by. Things have been great health wise too so there hasn't been much to post either. :-)
I think most of you know from my previous posts that I had decided to go ahead with my reconstruction surgery. It is the final step in my cancer treatment and I've been looking forward to getting it done and getting on with my life. It's been a long year and half but I'm finally on the home stretch.

I went in last Monday (Dec 6th). There was a bit of a fiasco on the Friday before. The hospital called me Friday afternoon and canceled my surgery due to lack of beds availaible at the Civic Hospital, then 3 hours later called me back and said it was back on. Bizarre, but I was glad to be able to go and get it done and over with. On the advise of my doctor I went with a procedure called a Free TRAM Flap. It's essentially a transplant of muscle, fat and skin from the tummy that is used to create a new breast mound after a mastectomy.
We arrived at the Civic at 8:30 am on Monday and I was wheeled upstairs by 10:30 am. I got up there and things happened relatively quickly. Dr. Guay's team were ready and after a quick chat, some drawings and signing the consent for the removal of my port (Dr. Guay and I had discussed prior to the surgery about removing it), I was wheeled into the operating room. I believe the surgery was roughly 3 1/2 hours long. Next thing I knew I was waking up in recovery around 5 pm. I was disappointed to hear when I woke up that my port was still in me.
My surgery ended up being more complicated than expected. The first thing was that the vein in my underarm where the main source of blood flow to the flap comes from was too small to use. He had to find a different vein to use which took some time. The second complication was around the veins in my lower abdomen are not typical either. My anatomy apparently is different than most people with respect to where my veins are located. I didn't get a lot of details around that unfortunately. In the end the surgery turned out to be more complicated and they ran out of time to remove my port.

I spent the next 3 1/2 days in hospital. The surgery turned out to be much more intense than I was expecting. I was in pretty rough shape for the first 3 days. I couldn't keep anything down and I was very much out of it because of the pain medication. I was able to sit up in a chair on Wednesday evening. Things really didn't start to turn until late Thursday afternoon when I was able to start eating again and able to go for a short walk down the hallway.
My stay at the hospital for other reasons was also not very enjoyable. I was in a room with a lady who had been in a car accident and was there for 30 days. Not really sure of the history there but she was I have to say the nastiest woman I have ever come in contact with. Not just someone who was mad about her injury or having a bad day/week but nasty to the core. She was so mean to the nurses and the hospital staff you wouldn't even believe the things that came out of her mouth. I felt terrible for the nurses, she was so abusive. She had no respect for anyone or anything. She would keep me up all night with her TV on because she would sleep during the day. She refused to wear her earphones too so I didn't sleep much for my whole stay. I thought about saying something to her but one of the nurses told me she had become violent early in her stay at the hospital so I decided to just ignore her as much as possible.

I was so happy to get discharged on Friday AM I can't even tell you. It was a very relaxed and slow weekend. I have strict orders to not do much for 3 weeks. Not that I can do much anyway. I have an incision line from hip to hip which is slowing me down.
My Mom is here this week helping out and taking care of me, so things are going smoothly. Thanks Mom!!!

Thanks to everyone for the get well soon wishes and I'm sorry if I haven't returned phone calls, I'll hopefully return all calls this week.
I want to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!