First round done/Update from Hospital

Oy.  i am so out of it

The first sentence of this blog was written by Jess on her blackberry shortly before passing out again. What she really wanted to say was "holy shit, I am really out of it".

The surgery went well in terms of removing the tumors-- the doctors feel like they removed the tumors with a good margin. Dr. Chung explained to me that they removed 1 LITER of breast tissue, hahahaha. For your information, 1 Liter of fluid is about 1200ccs in breast reconstruction lingo-- for example, 425ccs is a FULL C Cup! I haven't been this flat chested since the 3rd grade.

However, there was a complication with my blood counts- they were and have remained very low-- which means during surgery I had clotting and oozing issues. They were able to complete the surgery successfully, but only did the left (cancerous) side mastectomy and removed the lymph nodes on that side. They did not do anything on my right side at this time because of the clotting issues.
Because of the issues with my blood/platelets, recovery has been more difficult.Yesterday I received a blood transfusion because my counts were getting dangerously low. They gave me platelets first...I had two IV lines but one of them went bad and so it made this transfusion process longer and more difficult. The IV line that was working was in a small vein, so they had to give me the blood very slowly and it kind of kept me up all night, which was really annoying. They tried poking me twice, but couldn't start another IV because my blood pressure was so low.
This morning they were going to give me another half pint of blood but I put my foot down and said no because the IV hurts more than my breast surgery which means something is wrong- they eventually took it out and will monitor. They started another IV with saline only and we'll see if I need more blood.
I did get up for the first time today and walked out into the hallway for about 10 steps. I felt a bit light headed but okay. They don't want me walking very far but not because of the surgery, because my blood counts are so low.
I have been resting and now will try to sleep (with the help of Ativan and Percocet!). Thank you to everybody who has sent me well wishes and flowers and cards and notes and emails and phone calls. I'm sorry I'm so out of it I can't respond to anything.
I'll try to post an update tomorrow with my status report.
Jess