Surgery Tomorrow

Thank God this will be over tomorrow.  Yeah, there will be recovery, but I am just so over this Lumph!  I keep thinking that maybe God didn't let us get pregnant because this was going to happen.  So we should be good to have a baby after this is over.

This weekend has been crazy.  Family is visiting from all over.  My son broke his arm Friday after school (first broken bone, 1000th ER visit).  While babysitting our nephew, he woke up crying in horrible pain so we took him to the ER Saturday morning. Turns out he has a distended bladder.  Oh Sweet Jesus!  What is next?!?!?!?

Nothing.  Peace and quiet is next.  Please?

Oh, did I forget to mention that I am having surgery tomorrow and of course, I get my period late yesterday.  It's a week late.  Last week I kept saying to myself, either I'll get really lucky and it won't come until after the surgery or Mother Nature will play a cruel joke on me and it will come head on right before surgery.  If ever there is uncertainty, just pick the worst case scenario.

Upcoming Neck Dissection Surgery

A little bit about the surgery I am having.  This one is for those weak stomachs out there that don't want to see any surgery!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IPwF1cGWjJQ

And for those that can handle it (this isn't the exact same surgery, but the same procedure)...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ji8t5QKMOoA&feature=related

This one is more related.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a3Zj1pHJ2Ck&feature=endscreen&NR=1

I am starting to get nervous.  I have had surgery before, but minor stuff like tonsils and gallbladder.  Eeek!  Surgery is next Wednesday.  I am starting to have weird nightmares.  I am not normally so scardey cat.  It might be awhile before I am back on here to update you depending on how I feel.  Wish me luck!

Oh, and the Lymph Node Lump has a new name created by my son.. Lumph

Lumpy

I'm still alive!

Lumpy will be leaving my life on February 22nd.  Here is the low down.

On Monday, January 30th, the swelling hadn't gotten so bad, I wound up going to the ER that night.  They did a CT and bloodwork.  They explained that it was not abscessed so there was nothing they could do for me until I had the results of my biopsy.  The additional sudden swelling was probably a result of the biopsy and showed up on the CT scan as fluid.  So they pumped with with fluids, gave me prescriptions for Keflex (antibiotic) and Percocet (pain killer).

The swelling increased more.  It was frightening.  It went along my jaw line, down my neck, around behind my ear, to the base of my brain.

On Thursday I returned to my Endo for the results of my fine needle biopsy.  He said all results were benign.  No sign of cancer.  I begged him to tell me who to fix the problem.  This was getting out of control.  He started me on steroids hoping to reduce the excess swelling in my neck.

The steroids helped in the smallest littlest bit.  The swelling down down an inch and stopped.

Friday night I couldn't stand it anymore again.  I went back to the ER.  Another CT scan showed the mass had grown since Monday.  The ER doc seemed to think that the biopsy my Endo did was a waste.  Said it was looking for a needle in a haystack, then droned on about how it might be cancer afterall and the only way to know for sure is to remove it.  He told me the lymph node was not the size of a golf ball.  He gave me the name of a Plastic Surgeon ENT.

I saw the ENT on Tuesday of last week.  He seems so young.  And he looks like someone famous but I can't place him.

Well he says that I am an interesting case.  He feels that it was infected at some point but it got out of control and hardened.  There are still small pockets of liquid in it.  It can not be drained.  He also felt the additional swelling was caused by my Endo nicking something when he was doing the biopsy and I hemorrhaged.  Could explain the extreme fatigue.

So we have scheduled a neck dissection surgery to remove the affected area.  Joy.  Have you seen one of these?  In my case, he will use a "cute little crease" on my neck to minimize scarring.  From there he will lift it all up, cut up the muscle, bypass my arteries and nerves and get in to where the node is.  He will then remove it, cut it into three pieces and send each piece off to the lab to be biopsied.  He'll then close me up and observe.  If he feels that I need a tube put in to drain fluids, he will do so the next day.  The tube will hang out of my neck and not come out until it leaks only 25 ml a day.  Which means someone in my family will have to bulb the tube out every few hours and measure the liquid.  Ugh.

Surgery has been scheduled for Wednesday the 22nd.  Wish me luck!