Monday I had to go to the hospital for surgery, but I had to get my blood work done first to check my platelets before we could proceed. They had come up from a 25,000 to a 54,000 (which is still low, but better) so we got the green light. They also said my white blood cell count was low, but I don’t know what the numbers were for that.
I was given anesthesia and wheeled off. I recall them telling Kris to go through a door to the right and wait there as they were pushing my bed down the hall, and then I was awake in some other room and he was beside me. It was all over. I was feeling some pretty intense cramping and soreness down there, so they gave me some morphine in my IV.
Yall.... I don’t do heavy meds or painkillers. I just don’t. So when I do, things get crazy. Kris has a video clip of me talking about the door situation and then I decided I was ET when I saw the glowing thing on my finger. I recall telling a nurse she was very pretty (he said she actually wasn’t at all, but I guess that makes it even nicer because I probably made her day.) I told him - loudly - to look at the other nurse’s butt, the one in the green pants, because she has (and I quote) a big ol’ booty. I made some people go hunt down this lady who works in the lab or something because she called me three times in a row the day I got my blood transfusion and I was trying to sleep, and she just kept talking and calling back knowing I was sleeping. So I just wanted to meet her in person so I’d know who she was. She walked up and I said “Kim, 3-4513!” That’s her phone line extension number, don’t ask how I remembered that in the state I was in, or why I felt like telling her because obviously she knows her name and number. Me on meds is kinda like being drunk. You’re aware of what you’re saying and doing, but it’s like your brain is on autopilot. I look back and I’m like oh gahhh, why did I say that? But it was funny. At least the video clip part was.
As for the surgery, first they did a biopsy for the clinical trial I’m participating in. Then after that, they installed the Smitt Sleeve, which is a small plastic tube that goes in my vagina to hold the rods in place for the internal radiation (aka Brachytherapy.) The tube was sewn in there and it stays in me until we finish Brachytherapy on Feb.12th. They said I wouldn’t be able to feel it, but I do. I cramped for about 24 hours after the surgery, but it’s not painful otherwise. When I move in certain positions, I can feel it kinda pinch in there. It caused some light bleeding, which I still have, but nothing major. I’m used to bleeding anyway.
Kris said Dr. Scalici told him she didn’t see any of the tumor left, and that they basically had to cut a chunk of my flesh where the tumor *was* for the biopsy. This is good news. I wish I’d have been awake to hear it. I’m trying not to get too excited just yet though. Not until treatments are ALL over and we do more scans to make sure the cancer hasn’t moved somewhere else. I want to be optimistic and say that won’t happen, but it can, and does, happen to people all the time. So for now, I’m just hoping for the best.
I start Brachytherapy on Friday. Two days from now. I’m nervous, and slightly terrified. I don’t know what to expect. Angel (Dr. Outlaw's nurse, who I just adore)said it's not as bad as what I read about. We'll see. I don’t know how long this will take. I am scared of what the side effects will be. The thought of laying on my back with my legs in stirrups and having to be super still for hours while metal rods are in my lady-basement is not something that was ever on my bucket list. I ordered a book from amazon to take and read while I wait in awkwardness. Getting lost in someone else’s world usually helps me forget about mine for a while.
Anyway, that’s all I’ve got for now. I feel like I am forgetting something, but if I am, I’ll just add it to the next update. It’s late and I’m tired.
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