Surgery to excise the malignant lymph node and submit it for testing to determine if it had the EGFR mutation went smoothly. My friend, Diane picked me up and we were at Group Health at 10:45. An unexpected cancellation moved me ahead from the original 12:45 appointment for the operation, and I was in by 11:30 and out of the operating room by 12:30. They gave me a local anesthetic that worked most of the time. I was in a pleasant somnolence when it failed and it was rather like a large electrical shock. Fortunately when I screamed, the nurse anesthestist increased the dosage and the rest of the operation went without a hitch. With about an hour's recuperation, I was home by 2 or 2:30.
Hopefully the node will be sent to the UW to do the EGFR mutation testing, so the results will be back next week rather than in 2-3 weeks. Until then it's a waiting game. I'm on heavy strength pain meds to stave off the reaction to the surgery. The nurse yesterday told me to stay on top of this because if I don't, catch up is not easy. And being in a lot of pain impedes the healing process. The drugs help with the anxiety for now. After that, we'll have to come up with other distractions.
Thursday, May 13, 2010
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1 comment:
Ouch. Hmm - if you stay in pain, you stay on the drugs, your anxiety is assuaged. Somehow that doesn't seem like the right thing to hope for. Instead, let's hope the processing goes as surprisingly ahead of schedule as the surgery did! And hope you stay ahead of the pain curve. xo
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