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By STEPHANIE LAW
Staff Writer

Editor’s Note: Eighth in a series of columns about one woman’s journey through the often-scary world of breast cancer diagnosis and treatment.

I don’t remember much of the days after my bilateral mastectomy. The drugs I had for pain also erased spots of my memory and made me sleep a lot.

I do remember one thing clearly — a telephone call from my doctor the afternoon I got home from the hospital. My decision to have both breasts removed was absolutely the correct one, she said.

The pathology report found a small invasive carcinoma in my left breast, supposedly the cancer-free one. Lucky decision, I thought. If I had chosen one of the other two options my doctor offered — an enlarged lumpectomy or single mastectomy — it might have been a long time before the cancer showed up through mammogram or self-examination.

The first time I had to drain and measure the fluid from the collection bulbs, I forgot one of the most important things the nurse told me: “Don’t pull on the tube”.

Since the tube was sutured to my skin, the pain when I pulled on it was really spectacular. I saw bright lights and heard a voice say, “That wasn’t the smartest thing you’ve ever done.” I think that voice was mine, but I’m not sure.

The literature mentioned fluid buildup was possible, but I didn’t really think much about it. I learned the importance of that little detail. On my left side, above the binder, I found a painful lump about the size of a golf ball. Realizing it might be fluid, I massaged it gingerly and finally the lump started to get smaller. Coincidentally, the fluid output on that side was increasing, so I knew I was doing something right.

I also had several painful spots under the skin that were hard and about the diameter of a piece of elbow macaroni (a little longer, though, and straight.) I didn’t find out until later that I was feeling the drain itself, which was about nine inches of coiled tubing under my skin.

I also was surprised at the amount of numbness I felt under my arm on one side, across my chest and under the other arm.

Numbness isn’t exactly absence of feeling, but it is a strange sensation, more pressure sensitivity than anything else. When you think about it, the numbness made sense. Surgery obviously had interrupted some nerve endings and they were making their feelings known the only way they could.

I had to call the nurse every day with a 24-hour fluid output level. In order for the drains to come out, each one had to drain 30 cubic centimeters or less. Removing the drains would signal an end of one stage of my recovery and beginning of the next. The first one was removed six days after surgery; the second, eight days.

I saw the doctor the next week and she said the incisions were healing well and that my body would absorb any remaining fluid. Unfortunately, she said, I had to have another operation. Since the left breast had cancer, she recommended that I have surgery to remove lymph nodes under my left arm to check for stray cancer cells.

My bilateral mastectomy was just three weeks earlier, and now I needed surgery . . . again. Despite the interruption to my recovery from the mastectomy, I knew I had to have this operation to learn whether I was cancer-free.

Surgery was scheduled four days later.

NEXT: Day surgery to test left side lymph nodes.

Stephanie Law is a copy editor at the newspaper and lives in Sabattus.Contact Stephanie Law by e-mailing: doverfox51@midmaine.com

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