Am I Ready For Surgery?

Actual entry date 10 Sept 2012

It's all happening in two days.  September 12, Wednesday, 11am. 

Actually, I should say surgerIES because I'll have 2 at the same time. Wait! I'll have 2 surgical procedures AND 1 non-surgical procedure. What?! 

I'm just "acting" surprised, of course. N and I gave the go-signal to do all of these in one go so that I won't have to go under the knife on separate occasions. 

The first procedure will be the Skin Sparing Mastectomy. Some of you might be queasy about reading how this is done so I won't elaborate. Google if you want :) 

During this time, my breast surgeon will carefully remove all the crap (I mean the lump) and hand it over to the pathologist to be studied. It's going to take ONE WHOLE WEEK for the pathologist to come up with a final report. This part really sucks because in other more advanced countries, it really doesn't take this long. The waiting adds to the stress. I'm going to have to pray really hard that I can focus on getting better and not on the results. 

Going back ... my breast surgeon will also do a Sentinel Lymph Nodes biopsy. It's important to know whether the nodes have been compromised (in layman's terms, that means if the cancer has spread outside the breast). According to the 2nd opinion I got on August 27 , my nodes are still clean.

So, please help me pray that this is still the case! It will matter so much, knowing that the cancer is still all in the LEFT breast so far (the right breast was declared clean after I had my breast ultrasound). 

When the breast surgeon is done with the mastectomy, the reconstructive surgeon takes over and does her thing. It's called a Tram Flap Reconstruction (again, just Google hehe). 

I'll be in the operating room for a total of 8 hours. Some people were shocked to know this (myself included). The longest I've been under anesthesia is during my C-section in 1996. But I do understand that these are back-to-back procedures I'm having. 3 hours for the mastectomy and 5 hours for the reconstruction. Sheesh, I can't imagine talaga going under the knife for vanity purposes. No offense meant to anyone who has done so or is planning on doing so. 

And there you have it! But wait, I didn't answer my question hahaha!

Am I ready? I guess I am, in the sense that I really want to get this over with. It's actually the first major and probably the most important step I'm going to take. I won't deny though that I'm a bit nervous. I need to really ask the Lord to take the feeling away.

I can't say "thank you" enough to everyone who has reached out to me and told me that they haven't stopped praying. More prayers will come my way this Wednesday. Some have also asked for the names of my surgeons, including the anaesthesiologist, so they can be prayed for and lifted up to the Lord as well. Yay! I have said many times how prayers have really done their job for me so far. That's why I am soooooooo grateful for all that's been said for me. 

May all of you have a good week ahead! God bless us all!