Post Op Recovery #2

Once again I cannot effectively express my most sincere thanks and appreciation to everyone for their kind thoughts, calls, notes and comments. We so appreciate the friendship, associations and most of all prayers.

I was able to come home on Saturday evening. We arrived here at about 5:00 p.m. I climbed into my recliner and was very pleased to be somewhere comfortable. There aren't very many (actually none) comfortable chairs at the hospital. My back was bothering me something awful by the time we left there.

Sunday was uneventful at home. Resting and watching some good old movies on the TV with my sweetheart and seeing a few visitors that came by the house. Yesterday, was much harder. I was very tired. So tired in fact that I decided to go to a local hospital and have my blood checked. You see, my HCT (hematocrit) had dropped on Friday to 29 and the surgical team had wanted to give me a blood transfusion. I asked them to wait and when they checked my blood later in the afternoon, it had increased to 30.4. However, Saturday morning, it was down again to 29.1 and they offered a transfusion again. I declined and asked them to recheck the level again later. It was up to 29.9 so they let me go home. My fear yesterday was that it was way down and that I had sabotaged myself by not having the transfusion then. Fortunately, the level had improved to 34, so it wasn't that that was making me feel so punk.

For the most part, my arm was giving me fits. From my shoulder to my wrist, it felt as if my arm had been beaten with a baseball bat. Heat, position, narcotics, nothing seemed to help. It was just plain uncomfortable all day long.

Since the surgery, I have had a drain in my wound. Today, I was able to have it removed along with all the bandaging that had been in place since the hospital. Imagine, large, bulky mass of of gauze covered by adhesive tape. Once all of this was removed, my arm has felt much, much better. I think all of the gauze was pushing on a nerve or something. I am glad it is gone. I am still covered in steri-strips from stem to stern and all my skin sticks to it's self from the soaps and stuff they used during surgery. But I do feel better.

OK - HERE IS THE GROSS PART. IF YOU DON'T WANT TO SEE GROSS PICTURES, STOP NOW. PROCEED AT YOUR OWN RISK.




This is at the beginning of surgery. I am unconscious (thankfully) and the OR team is preparing my skin with antiseptic. You can see the mass of the tumor kind of hanging there in the armpit area.







This at the point in the surgery when they removed the tumor (in surgeon's hands). You can see the big hole it came from and the position my arm was in for over 3 hours. No wonder it hurts!










Here is a shot of my armpit with all the bandage material and the drain hanging out of it.





















The bandage actually came off pretty well. The tape really hurt. You can see the steri-strips over the incision. The keep the skin together without a lot of stitches that would have to be taken out otherwise. In order for them to stick, the skin is covered with glue. You can also see the central IV line that I still have in my chest. It has been there since February 29th, four and a half months.














Here, the bandage is off. The drain is at the back and my skin is sticking. Yuck.












Cutting the stitch that holds the drain in place then yank, out it came and it didn't really hurt. Dr. Harline (my family practice supervising physician) was kind enough to do this for me. He said about 8 inches of drain was inside me. Sorry, I didn't get a picture of that.






And finally, here is a shot of the entire incision, about 23 cm when we measured it in clinic today. Again, you can see my skin sticking together. There is no armpit hair. I haven't had any there since the chemo. Radiation treatments must have had something to do with that too. I wonder if I will ever get any hair back there.

So, that is about it. Patti and I are scheduled to meet with the surgeon and the oncologist next Monday. I have a chest CT scheduled prior to those appointments. I am hoping for good findings and praying for a miracle for the lungs. The chemo treatments I already had were supposed to be the best there is for sarcoma and that is when it spread from my primary tumor to my lungs and spine. So, it will be interesting to see what they have planned next.

God bless you all. Thank you for your prayers.

Jim & Patti