This afternoon I noticed my right side feeling a little full (and warm? couldn't tell about the warm). My 9 years of motherhood and 9 months of breast cancer treatment told me that it was Friday at 1:40pm, and everything bad happens either at night or over the weekend when you can't easily reach your doctor or nurse! So I called my plastic surgeon's office, and they placated me by letting me come in to see how I was doing, if it was my imagination, or if I really had something going on.
My darling Nathan and I rushed into the car, after changing a diaper which only seems to need changing when you have 1 minute to get out the door! I got to the doctor's office at 2pm (he is usually not in the office on Fridays, I was so lucky, but I needed to be able to get there by 2pm). I did look a little fluid-filled, and he drained 60cc's of fluid from around my expander. I didn't feel the needle go through the skin, but I could feel it (YIKES!) near the muscle. I'm not a fainter, normally, but the world sure started swirling just then!
Just picture the scarring of the 3 year old - "Honey, we need to go to the doctor right now, we can take this nap later." "Do you really have a poopy? Really? Lie down right here on this floor and I will change it!" "Get in your seat, get in your seat, we have to go, we have to go!" Not to mention his mother dropping her shirt and revealing her crazy chest to strangers (he's seen it, it's impossible to keep him out of the bathroom when he's lonely and everyone else is gone, but he's never seen me bare it to people he doesn't know! Hopefully he won't think this is what Mommy always does!), and then seeing the doctor grab a gigantic syringe and needle and pull bloody fluid out of his mom's chest! Then she almost faints so they have to flip the chair down, put cool cloths on her head, etc. And I didn't even think to bring activities for him to do, so I just pulled out my iPhone and looked up Thomas the Tank Engine videos on YouTube to keep him busy!
I love my plastic surgeon, and I love his nurse (or should I say my nurse). They are such great people that even when I was worried about this surgery, the only thing I took consolation from was the fact that I would be seeing them so much more often. (What am I going to do when I am all done with this reconstruction? I'll have to think of other work to have done...not really, I've never been happier with all of my natural lumps, but maybe I can worm my way into their lives another way.) They convinced me it was a good idea to come in and get drained...that I wasn't crazy or neurotic, that they are there for such things.
I have decided I am going to spend the whole weekend doing nothing (horrible, horrible, painful thing that is for me), and hoping/praying for no more fluid collection that could lead to an infection. And that is my story for the night!
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