As you know, I am recovering from mastectomy and breast reconstruction surgery.
I’ve had bumps in the road, successes, a step forward and two steps back. But yesterday, well yesterday–I haven’t invented a category for it it.
Hey, are you still reading? Good. I’m glad you stopped by to visit me.
I retained a lot of water after my surgery, fifteen pounds in fact, and most of it was in my legs. That’s all gone, and my legs are back to normal.
But my stomach is all puffed out like I am pregnant with twins. Yesterday when I woke up it was so bad that I had to make a special appointment with the doctor.
My doctor then sent me over to the hospital for “interventional radiology” (which I had never heard of). I was told that they could “drain” it.
Anyway, I got to the Radiology Department at 1 pm. I handed my paperwork to a worker, and she asked me when I had last eaten. “I just had lunch,” I responded.
“Oh, no, you were not supposed to eat in case we have to sedate you.”
“No one told me that!”
“Okay,” she said, leading me to an alcove with a small cot. “Well, put on this hospital gown, here’s the TV remote. Just wait.” She pulled the curtain closed behind her.
I waited quite a while. I called Mr. Porter, and he left work to come over and stay with me.
“I guess they are waiting for me to digest my lunch. How long does that take?”
Mr. Porter rolled his eyes.
A different worker pulled back the curtain and came in. “We might not have to sedate you, we can just use a local anesthetic.” Who woulda thunk?
Finally, after I had sufficiently digested my food and/or they realized it didn’t matter, they whisked me off to the back room, clad only in my hospital gown–and socks.
Dr. Wonderful* came into the room and used the ultrasound machine to determine that yes, there is a lot of fluid trapped in my stomach. He put in a drain. This drain is different from the other aliens, er, drains that I had removed last week. This is a “passive” drain, I guess it works more with gravity to get the fluid out. The other drains worked with suction. So I have to remember to stand up every so often and work with the gravitational forces of the earth.
***Update. I am doing better today. I am remembering the principle of “things get worse before they get better.”
* not his real name LOL
SueAnn Porter 
I had never heard of interventional radiology either. Learn something new every day. I’m glad they were able to get you some relief.
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Thanks Anna. Tuesday really sucked up all of Tuesday AND Wednesday’s energies. But today is Thursday. 🙂 I’m back at it.
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I’ll just keep praying for you.
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Thank you Adrienne!
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Hang in there sweet sister! Keeping you, Mr. Porter and those treating in in my prayers. Trusting in God’s divine ability.
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Thank you Lois!
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I’m glad to hear today is a better day. Those ‘why didn’t you tell me not to eat’ moments are so infuriating. I’m glad they didn’t make you wait a whole day to get relief.
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Thank you Elizabeth! Yes, I was worried it would take 8 hours to digest my lunch.Yikes.
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Does the fun never end? I’m glad they figured out how to get that fluid out. Hope this is the end of all the snafus….
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Lots of fun, Terri. My poor husband can’t take too much more.
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What a trooper! Keep at it SueAnn!
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Thanks Eileen. This has certainly been a journey.
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Keep up!
It is like mountain climbing, you rarely can see the destination when you are in the wood, valleys, creeks and sudden landslides. Just because you feel in a downpath, you must know, the sunshine on the top is still ahead you.
😉
Be Blessed and Be Blessings to Others!
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Thank you JoshuaDragon. I know that after we get through these things, we have more compassion for others going through it. So I guess I’ll be “filled with compassion” eventually. 🙂
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You are always in my prayer, Sue Ann.
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Thank you Camellia!
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It sounds like a total nightmare. I’m glad they managed to sort it out for you.
On an unrelated matter, do you back up your blog? If you don’t I’d urge you to do it straight away. My blog was hacked, probably through a WordPress plug in. I’ve lost it all. There may be some fragments I can salvage but I’m starting over with a new blog http://www.iwalkalone.co.uk. The moral of the tale is BACKUP!
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Thanks for the warning Marie. A lot of my stuff is on word documents before I blog it, but some isn’t. You are right, always backup!!
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ps Marie, is there an easy way to back it up all at once? Or do I need to do one at a time?
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If you go into WordPress Dashboard then tools, there’s an option to export. You can choose the dates you want. I did mine in segments so they would to be too big. It’s really easy but it doesn’t back up your photos.
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Thank you Marie, I am working on this now!
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oh man Sue Ann! Yuck!! Praying you are seeing MUCH improvement by now. Talk soon.
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Thank You!!
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Praying for a complete recovery! God’s got this!
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Thank you Mary. Having NO chemo and NO radiation is truly an answer to prayer! I’m doing better every day.
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