Category: Surgery

Preparing to Tackle Another Surgery

by Tammy Myers

The last few months have been difficult and scary at times, but have also been a really great time for self growth and discovery. Although I am still dealing with some and probably always will be dealing with some of the very limiting and painful post-breast cancer side effects in addition to the side effects from the hormone therapy I will be on for the next 10-15 years, I will admit that, I do feel a tiny bit more like myself with each day that passes, which is uplifting in itself. Over the past few months, I have had several routine appointments, blood draws, scans, and X-rays that in most cases have lead to the dreaded “we have to run further testing to confirm this is not a new tumor and to confirm that your cancer is not coming back” conversation. As you can imagine, this keeps my life on an emotional roller-coaster, but it also continuously reminds me to be thankful for each and every day at the same time. I will be the first to admit that hearing those words NEVER gets easier. With each phone call my heart skips a beat and plummets into my stomach and even with my sometimes blind optimism in check, I at times still find it hard to keep my mind from going to dark places in those moments. So far a second chest x-Ray has confirmed that an opacity found on a scan is not a new breast tumor, and an echocardiogram has confirmed that I do not have any more damage to my heart then expected after taking a chemotherapy drug that decreases heart function, in addition to receiving radiation treatments that cause heart failure later, but I am still in the process of determining why my liver levels are consistently high. Elevated liver enzymes can suggest a cancer recurrence so although my levels are not dangerously high, my doctors are keeping a very close eye on things. We have been repeating and watching my blood work for months, and I have had an ultrasound done that  revealed a small mass on my liver that they actually found and documented in a previous scan. However, the good news the mass hasn’t grown too much over the past year, so my oncologist is hopeful it is not cancer. Just to be sure, I will be having a CT scan in the coming weeks to rule this possibility out all together.

A day full of appointments

by admin

Today was full of appointments. I started off with a little post surgery Physical therapy. Ok a lot of post surgery Physical therapy. I love Amy, but my the cording in my arm, chest, and neck do not. We are making progress and even broke one of the cords today…. I’m not going to lie and tell you that wasn’t painful. But, Like many things, I’m realizing this is physical recovery is going to be a long process. From there I met with a very special past nurse and got to chat with a very special previous doc for a bit as well, and then left for my plastic surgery appointment.

My surgeon made my day by telling me that I’m one of her most inspiring patients. Little does she know, she’s pretty amazing herself. It’s a funny feeling to know that your doctors are following your posts, but I only have great things to say about everyone on my medical team so the more I think about it, I am glad that they stop in from time to time to hear that they are loved. It’s so important to feel good about your medical team. I feel pretty blessed to have each and everyone of them in my corner.

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Full Surgical and Post Surgical Update: Reconstruction part 3, ovariectomy, chemo port removal, fat grafting

by admin

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The Morning of Surgery came quick since I really didn’t get any sleep. We had to be at Butterworth at 7:30 so we met my friend and Photographer Sam in the lobby at 7:15. After 5 minutes of talking in the Surgery waiting room with this amazingly funny woman I actually forgot what I was there for. My best friend Sarah met us as we were led into the pre-op room. They didn’t run as many tests before this surgery so we actually had some time to just hang out and catch up. Putting my husband, my sister wife Sarah, and Sam in a room is always a recipe for belly laughs so the time before my surgery was actually kind of fun.

Oddly every nurse that talked to me and my anesthesiologist seemed very surprised that I was having so many different Surgeries done in one day, but I’m still very happy that I was able to check so many things off my list before the New Year. However the mood seemed a bit different with the medical staff this time around. More serious for some reason or maybe it just seemed that way because we were having so much for in the pre-op room before they came in to get me ready.

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Tomorrow is the day

by admin

Ok let’s be real, today is the day. In a few hours I will be heading to Spectrum Butterworth for a few different surgeries. I will be having phase two of my breast reconstruction including fat and tissue grafting, my port removal, and I will also be having my tubes and ovaries taken out with a frozen section biopsy being taken while I’m in surgery to rule out any current risk. I know I should be sleeping right now, but sleep is one thing I have yet to conquer so I am writing instead.

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Infection Update

by admin

My appointment this morning with my plastic surgeon went well lots of with lots information. It turns out that I had a pretty nasty infection leading to last Sundays emergency surgery (I forget the name of the actual infection but she kept saying it was one of the bad ones and that it started at the drainage tube site. Her kind eyes confirmed she did everything she could, but there is no way she could have saved the tissue expander on that right side due to the severity of the infection. Sadly I had felt the pain in the drainage tube for a day or so, but thought it was normal and didn’t make the call. (if ever in this situation don’t make my mistake, MAKE THE CALL) Away, she was thankful I called when I did because I guess it would have gotten much worse and it could have moved further through my body.

Downside is that I’m still at kind of risk for this infection for a while. They cleaned it out good, but it was a bad one so she’s not taking any chances. More and new stronger antibiotics, and no new tissue expander or implant for 6 months, which of course makes me sad. She will plan to do a fatty tissue graft/implant to fill the hole as soon as we can, which will make it look a little better. However, if I have to have radiation then we will be waiting two months before that procedure. Again a bummer.

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Emergency Surgery

by admin

The worst-case infection scenario became my reality today however it was far less then we feared surgery wise. As of 6:00 am I saw my plastic surgeon’s resident where he preceded to send images to my surgeon based on the progress made through IV antibiotic treatment and drain output. Within the hour my amazingly kind surgeon was at my bedside dressed in cute “day off” attire checking the results herself. After a bit of deliberation she decided that her fear was correct and my infection was coming from the inside and the tissue expander/spacer had to come out. Since she was a bit concerned and due to leave the state later this afternoon she jumped into action quickly and secured an OR within only a few hours.

It was a bit chaotic based on the fact that I was here alone with limited cell service however I got the message to close family and friends out and had one of my rocks Sarah Keast by my side in less then an hour. It was a bummer that I didn’t get to see my sweet and very worried hubby before the surgery, however we really want to keep Corryn away from the hospital setting so it was important he stayed with his other love. I did however finally get to greet my very sweet and teary-eyed sister Misty who flew in from Colorado late last night moments before they took me back.

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