Mum’s Opp. (by sarah)
Mum had her oppuration yesturday, they removed the lump from the breast and the lymph nodes undernieth her right arm. When I went to see her she had blue lips and very pale with two drains coming from her breast (this was two tubes full of what looked like just blood ending in what I think of as a plimsol bag). She was also drifting in and out of concousness whilst sitting up with the cup of tea they'd given her to re-hydrate/replace the fluids she'd lost (I'm really not sure this is a good technique as I thought tea was a diarrectic and it contained milk when she was feeling quesy from the drugs and it was hot and I had to keep rescuing it otherwise she'd have tipped it all down herself!).
Apparently she had been bleeding alot and they'd had trouble stopping it, she'd just come off of the oxygen which she would have hated as the masks make her feel closterfobic. They had given her morphine as well for the pain and she really was away with the fearies!
To my suprise there was actually stuff to wash your hands with though it did run out whilst we where there and I was actually really impressed as when one of the woman fell over on route to the toliet three nurses appeared like lightning from the woodwork!
Jean was very quiet and still for most of the time in there, she was fine with mum if a bit subdued but seemed highly concerned about all the other people on the ward. When she started to become fractous I took her out of the ward and instantly had a hell of a fight on my hands as she wanted to go back and got annoyed with me as, 'Nanny ouchy, Nanny stuck, no like, Nanny!' She seemed quiet concerned that we had left nanny behind.
Mum did look very bad when we went to see her - I actually cried a bit when I took Jean outside to the shop that was supposed to be open until 7 but was closed at 5, but Al visited later on and she was fine and coherant by that point.
I was concerned as well to find that mum only had one sexy white stocking on to help prevent clots - they had been unable to find a vein so had had to take the other one off to find one in her leg. I saw the results of their search today and I haven't seen bruising as bad as that since my nan died and her skin had gone paper thin. You could really see that it was bleeding under the skin. (mum normally has to take asperin as a prescription thing but had obviously stopped taking it in the lead up to the opperation but I think that perhapse it hadnt been stopped long enough).
I am a bit perplexed that she had trouble stopping bleeding yesturday and today they've given her Claxan (sp) which is the blood thinner I had during the pregnancy, this is 'just incase' and she had two stockings on today - her feet have also blown up like balloons which worries me quiet alot as she's had history of blood clots in the legs.
Still she seemed almost herself though a bit concerned that one boob seemed to be bigger than the other!
We now have to wait three weeks to find out what sort of cancer it was and wheather chemotherapy is needed. She will start the radiotherapy at about that time just to 'make sure' . She's alot better than we were expecting and they might let her go home tomorrow even though she will still have a drain in.
We are happyish as the main concern for me really was the strain of the opperation and the anasthetic.
The Family | sarah | 
Wed 24th Oct 2007 10:00 pm
Subscribe
By Charlee, Wed 24th Oct 2007 @ 10:47 pm
Sounds like an ordeal, and it's just so unfair that it had to happen at all. Your Mam is such a wonderful woman, who totally doesn't deserve this! I really really hope that everything goes well, and if there's anything I can do (and god I wish I could drive at the moment), then please just let me know. I got some of those sexy stockings too today, so if you need spares ...
By sarah, Thu 25th Oct 2007 @ 9:39 am
Thanks Charlee 🙂