I had one ginormous right breast. One morning I thought that the breast felt odd. A little tingling and somewhat firm. But it was Father's Day so I went into "wait and see" mode.And wouldn't you know, that sucker got larger and larger, firmer and firmer, throughout the day. So once the day's celebrations were complete, I called the surgeon on call. Hello Dr. Who I've Never Met. It's Sally Robertson and I have a ginormous hard breast.
I realized after hanging up that I had not been fair to the doctor as I really had not provided enough background information. So I called back an hour later. Yes, still ginormous. Yes, still hard as a rock. But let me tell you a little about me.......
So I ended up in the ER. One of my besties came down to keep me company. Other than the huge breast and associated pain and discomfort, it wasn't so bad. We talked, caught up, people watched, and looked for the bright side. I swore her to advocate for me keeping my implants, no matter what. I was able to go back into the actual ER from the waiting room but spent the night on a gurney in the hall. So every person going by either gave me a solid stare or avoided eye contact altogether. Interesting experience, but I digress.
After a breast ultrasound and consultation with the on call surgeon, I was admitted to the hospital. Again, when that surgeon came in in the morning, he explained that I would meed surgery fairly soon to clean out the fluid that surrounded the input. Everyone's best bet is that it was the result of a bleed.
However, after consultation with the surgeon who had done the excisional biopsy five weeks earlier, it was clear that if at all possible, I wanted to avoid having this particular surgery then and the breast cancer surgery a week later. That's a lot of trauma to the tissue. That's a lot of trauma psychologically. And it's just a lot for my family too. When it became clear that the breast oncology surgeon was unable to move up her availability, I went home with the goal of waiting it out and just dealing with it until the scheduled surgery the next week. Well, that plan lasted about 16 hours. My huge breast was expanding again. The next morning I was back in the surgeon's office before 9:00 am.
Ultimately it was agreed that this situation could not wait a week. So surgery was scheduled for the following day. Both the removal of the hematoma and a washing out
of the area along with the removal of tissue for cancer margins took place during the same trip to the OR. Once again, I prayed and prayed that I would wake up with breast implants still in. You go, Dr. You are a miracle worker. I still have boobs!
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