Cancer After Cancer - The Unspoken Truth

Have I said lately how absolutely much I love blogging?  I believe this has gotten me through my cancer journey.  Wait . . . I know this has gotten me through my cancer journey.  There is something so calming about typing my feelings.  I feel like I am not alone.  Baring my emotions to all the world is so freeing.  I understand this is not everyone's cup of tea, but this makes it even more important for me to do.  Our world needs people comfortable speaking up to do so on the behalf of our team.  A team is compromised of a group of people that all excel at different things.  My role on the cancer team is to share the good, the bad and the ugly.

So let's get to it!

Friday we went to the hospital for surgery #4.  The plan was to remove the tissue expanders in both breasts even though I only had an infection in the right breast (and remember cancer was only found in the left breast).  I spent the morning at the hospital doing the typical pre-surgery prep, and by mid afternoon I was in the OR once again cracking jokes with my surgical team.  I have heard that you end up becoming pretty close with your team of medical staff, and I can definitely relate.  I see this group more than I see my friends and extended family.  I also understand my team deals with many individuals upset and negative about their situation.  Even though it is not the medical group's fault us folks with cancer have cancer, people tend to take it out on them.  It's my goal to let my team know how much I absolutely appreciate them and everything they do for me and everyone else.  There is a special kind of person that decides to do this for a living - like many careers such as teaching (Miss Tammy my rock star, Rick, Janel, Mary and the rest of you), nursing (there are too many of you to list, but you know who you are), animal care (Toni I am kinda jealous of you), and so on.

I have also taken this time to practice remembering names.  This is one thing in the business world I am embarrassed of being pretty awful at.  So now I have had about a year of meeting more medical folks than I ever hope to meet in the rest of my life.  As such, it's given me a great opportunity to focus on remembering names.  Years ago when I just started in the business world, a very amazing talented woman taught me to always push myself to do the things I don't want to do.  As I was only 17 and didn't know any better, I thought this was what you do.  It has proven to be a good habit.  You also get this amazing rush of energy that is a combination of uncomfortable nerves and excitement tackling these fears.  It's like being on a rollercoaster ride!  So anyways, my Friday morning and afternoon was providing positive feedback and repeating everyone's name like they were my best friend from grade school.  I also like to throw a few hugs in where appropriate ;)

After surgery #4  I awoke in the recovery room, which is just one of my favourite places in the hospital.  You get almost one-on-one attention and their goal is to make you as comfortable as possible.  Pain meds, ice chips and crackers - what more could a girl ask for!  I spent about two to three hours getting pampered.   At one point I may have asked them if they had my Ritz Carlton member card number (ha ha, I crack myself up).

Finally, when I was coherent enough, they transferred me to my lovely suite for my stay.  Greg showed up with the kids as the initial goal this was to be a day surgery (in and out).  We are settling in my room and my nurse starts taking my vitals and checking on my wounds.  Nurse:  Ahhhhhhh . . . something is not right.  Was your right breast this large in recovery?  Me:  Ahh, I am not at the Ritz Carlton?  Nurse:  I will be right back.  Nurse returns.  Nurse:  Okay, we need to take you back to recovery.  Lets clean up all this blood up first, and you need to sign these two consents - one for another surgery to remove the hematoma and another for a possible blood transfusion.  You are going to have to go back to the OR.  Me:  No worries.  More attention for me.  Kids are freaking out as I am getting rushed back to surgery.  Not a good moment.

So what does this all mean?  I ended up with a hematoma the size of grapefruit in my right breast.  This is very common.  Ha, like who would know that?  Like most things that absolutely suck, they don't advertise these things to you.  Friday evening I ended up with surgery #5.  I asked my doc during surgery #4 what do I get for surgery #5, you know, like a frequent stamp card.  He said a free surgery.  Ha, that's funny, right?  As in Canada, there are no costs for medical treatments - great insurance (maybe the US will learn how to take care of it's citizens - hint, hint).  Well, surgery #5 went off without a hitch.  All went well and no more hematoma.  However, both breasts started to swell again, so the docs were concerned.  Yeah me.  A couple more days in the Ritz Carlton Mount Sinai.  The great positive absolutely (can you tell I love the word "absolutely"?) wonderful news no more additional swelling and Greg was able to take me home on Sunday!

Here I sit on my couch with my husband pillow, drain, squishy under my arm pillow and drink, healing and just hoping to move on to the next step in life.  How in the fuck can I have spent more time in the hospital post cancer than during cancer?  Why the hell doesn't anyone tell you about this?  Who in the fuck thought it was a good idea to get reconstructive surgery and place foreign objects in your body right after they just got done pumping poison in your body for 12 weeks?  Why don't more professionals explain to you all the real side effects of chemo besides just losing your damn hair?  And why don't they tell you that many of these side effects stick around much longer than the cancer?  I can honestly say this is the most surprising part about my cancer journey.  And this does not even touch upon the mental issues we deal with.  

My goal during this journal entry was to provide some statistical data on post cancer mastectomy surgery infection statistics.  So what would you do to get these statistics?  What do most people do to get an answer to a question they do not know?  GOOGLE.  The sad truth . . . there are not a lot of statistics publicly available.  Here's what I found:  from a study in 2008, more than 1 in 20 women develop an infection post surgery.  Yup, that's it.  What I will say, that alone is pretty alarming.  I have also spoke to women who have had similar surgeries, and it's crazy how many of them have had similar situations.  My hopes is things such as social media, help get the word out to people going through similar situations.

One of the things that has really helped me in addition to blogging is Twitter.  I have been able to connect with amazing people going through the cancer journey all around the world.  This has been pretty freaking amazing especially as I have been living in another country away from my family and childhood friends.  I have found a very good base to remind me I am not alone.  Social media in general has been fantastic.  Between cancer, sports and US politics, I have been having an absolute blast with social media.

Social media and my recent personal experiences has given me so many more things to blog about.  Remember, I thought I would not have anything to blog about post cancer.  Ha, I got so many things I will be busy until year end.  As such, I must say good night for the evening so I can watch some crazy US politics while in the comfort of my warm Canadian home.

Good night all you absolutely fantastic people.   If you love to cook, make lots and share it with your neighbors, friends and family. Food is good for the belly, and especially for the soul when it's made from love.