Saturday Update

A follow on from the traumatic experience I wrote about last night.

The district nurses have been wonderful.  One of them phoned me this morning to see how I was and when she heard I was still distressed she got the senior district nurse to visit me within fifteen minutes.

She examined me and said that there is no sign of infection.  It always has a certain redness to it when infected. The stiffness I feel is normal because it is pressing on nerves.  The heat is simply caused by the build up of fluid.  She also checked my temperature which is normal.  Naturally my blood sugars have gone soaring and she said this is what is making me feel unwell, that it is stress-related and I am not to worry about it at this time.

Because of what happened last night she feels it is in my best interests to wait until I see my surgeon on Monday morning.  He will not only drain it but tell me exactly what to do and who to contact if it happens again and it is quite likely to.  She will be ringing me in the morning (Sunday) to see how I am.  She said unless anything changes for the worst that is what she feels would be best for me.

If it suddenly starts growing, turns red, I start to feel really unwell then she said to call an ambulance but she says in her professional opinion this is not likely to happen based on much experience with other breast cancer patients.  She assured me that if she felt it was necessary she would have called an ambulance today.  That has relaxed me somewhat.

She did say the the wound under my arm still has a centrimetre that has not closed and she was very concerned that the doctor examined me last night without washing his hands and his whole manner left a lot to be desired.  She said it was disgusting when he kept asking me what the operation was for, any GP should know by where the wounds were what it was for.  She has told me where I can put it an official complaint and she also told me to tell my surgeon about it on Monday.  Do not worry, I fully intend to.

So, at least my mind has been put at rest.  Although it is painful I know that it is not likely to be something that has gone wrong with the operation and four people have now confirmed it is fluid.  I can live with the discomfort until Monday, at least I know I will be seeing somebody decent then.

Of course, now I am even more scared about going back.  Last night's experience went a long way to undoing all the good and positive thoughts I had built up about hospitals.  But I will have my wonderful Mike and Becky with me and I will do it somehow.

Thank you all for your concern.  Just wanted to let you know the current situation. The nurse says I can ring them at any time.  Just wish it had not happened and I did not have this discomfort to put up with.

I know you will all be thinking about me on Monday morning and wishing me well.  I shall be leaving here at 9 a.m.  Hopefully I will be returning minus the fluid!