We arrived on time at the hospital at 6 AM. The minute I opened the doors, the hospital smell hit forcefully. What makes a hospital smell so 'closed-in' and .... dirty feeling? It was enough to make me want to turn right around and go back out of those doors.
Admission
After Sign In registration, Rex and I were shown to our accommodations for the day: a 'bed' room, very narrow - about 12 ft by 8 ft. It contained lockers for personal possessions, a sink, a bathroom, a hospital bed, and a chair for Rex. The room had a comfortable feel to it. Procedures then moved along at a calm, well-spaced pace:
Dress in the hospital's 'beautiful' gown (tongue-in-cheek!)
Blood pressure,
Sign more consent forms,
an IV is put into my right hand (a good job done at this!) and
Support hose stretching up to the thigh is put on me. This is to keep my legs warm.
I especially liked the primary nurse, Gail, into whose care I'd been given. Throughout the day, warm blankets would be spread over my flat form. A comforting feeling.... In the lull between 7:30 and 8 AM, I made an entry for March 28th in my journal. Remembering yesterday's good and blessed events gave me a sense of calm and well-being.
Identifying the Sentinel Lymph Node’s Location
At 8 AM, I was taken to Radiology. Actually, I objected to the wheel-chair ride because I wanted so much to walk! (I missed my morning exercise routine.) This procedure was to take about 30 minutes to an hour. A tech showed me a chart illustrating the lymph nodes in the body (neck, shoulder, stomach, groin) and explained what they'd shortly be doing to identify the sentinel node under my left arm. What they don't tell you before you get here is about how the radioactive isotopes tend to 'sting' a bit when placed in the body. (One friend described it as an electric shock wave that stuns you for about 10-15 seconds). The isotopes would be injected around the nipple and their purpose was to 'light the way' to the sentinel node - the doorway to all the other nodes. When this was accomplished, a blue dye would be injected to clearly mark the path - the highway - to the node. The tech went on to explain that when this is all said and done, they use a 'high tech' tool to mark the spot where your sentinel lymph node is: they use a Sharpee (black felt pen). That made me giggle.
A nurse administered local anesthesia in my arm prior to receiving the isotopes. I was out like a light and never felt the sting at all. I awoke half an hour later to find a huge drum (it looked somewhat like the underside of a space ship!) hovering over me. It was very close to my face. For comfort, I was told to turn my face sideways. In size, I'd say it was a good 3-4 feet across in diameter and 18 inches deep. It was another type of radiation machine. It read where the isotopes had traveled. This information was relayed to a computer half-way across the room. The tech at the monitor then guided the tech at the drum to where on the outside of my body the sentinel lymph node was located. When the two techs agreed, the spot was marked with the black felt pen.
Guide Wire(s)
From Radiology, I was taken immediately to the Ultrasound room. It was now about 9:30. Rex was brought in to the room next door. We figured this was probably for the comfort of the loved one. He didn't see anything that happened….
The ultrasound was given for the purpose of locating the tumor and placing a guide wire in it so that the surgeon knew right where to go. The wire itself reminded me of what you can get at any craft store: thin and stiff but bendable for artificial flower arrangements. I was now given another local numbing anesthetic to the affected breast. A male tech and a doctor attended to this procedure. I was able to watch all that went on. The doctor placed the ultrasound wand on my breast and went looking. What he was looking for, I had no idea because I knew that he wasn't in the area where the tumor was! After a few minutes of this, I finally asked him what he hoped to see in that area. It was then that he realized he was in the wrong spot! "Oh, I've got my clock wrong. Your tumor is at 10 o'clock, not 4 o'clock!" Ummmm, yep….
The wire was guided into the tumor by way of a needle. It was supposed to go all the way through the tumor and lodge at the tumor’s outer bottom perimeter. The way it would lodge is that when the needle was withdrawn, the wire that had a fish-hook type head would snag and hold. (Sort of like a grappling hook when mountain climbing.)
However, that's not what happened the first time with me! When the doctor went to withdraw the needle, the wire followed. It finally hooked on at the outer top perimeter. This meant that the doctor had to go back in with another wire and snag the outer bottom perimeter. This he did without any further trouble. Now I had two wires sticking out of me showing both boundaries, the top and the bottom. (Later, I counted this as a blessing, a good ‘mistake.) The wires were bent circularly in a loop and then taped flat to the breast.
Oddly, the male tech and male doctor were 'goosy' about finishing up with me (taping the wires flat) because that was not in their job descriptions. Usually, two female nurses are assigned this duty. One went home sick and the other was not allowed in a room where the patient was radioactive because she was pregnant. (What does that tell ya?)
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