Cancer Files: A Little Procedure

My definition of PROCEDURE would be "surgery performed in the back room of the doctor's office without the luxury of getting to sleep through it"!  Can anyone else relate?  I have had two   "procedures" done since June and four surgeries.  Other than the fact that anesthesia can be a bear to recover from, I would much preferred being able to sleep through the procedures.  I thought I would try another one today, but I have the same thing to report this time around.  There are just some things you should never have to be awake for.

It was about 10 minutes into the "open up, debrief and stitch back up" procedure where my head was telling me "GET OUT OF HERE...I CAN'T DO THIS!"  I recall a day back in June where I had two biopsies done and the exact same thing happened at about the same time in the process.  I just wanted to get up and leave.  At that time I was pinned (literally) to the table and today the doc had his hand inside of me, so I found myself doing a lot of self talking and reminding myself to take deep breaths and the feeling passed.  Don't get me wrong, I still fought having to be there, but mentally I worked through it.

I just love it (like in the dentist office - so most can relate) when the doctor says, "okay, now stop me if you feel any pain.  NO!  I don't want to have to stop you, I want you to hit EVERY inch of nerve you can find in there, I don't want to be able to feel ANYTHING!  It was right at that thought when YEOWWW!!!!  Yep, there was pain.  He stopped and gave me a couple more shots of the good stuff.  Not so good, because all of the sudden I started feeling my legs tingle and my head feel very light!  He tilted the chair so my head was lower than my feet and the fear of passing out left me.

It took about an hour.  I found a great spot on the ceiling to stare at so I could attempt a happy place.  I never really arrived there, not even close.  David got to come in and be in the room since he has passed the steel stomach test with all the doctoring he has done in the past months. It was nice having someone there who has a great "you hurt her, you deal with ME" look on his face!  So once again, I am recovering.  Later this evening the doc called me and told me the warning signs of too much lidocaine.  If I feel any of those symptoms, he told me to get to the ER because those are signs of a possible cardiac event.  He said drink lots of water and try not to move my arm too much for about five days.  I think he really wants this to be over with too.  Five days is a long time to take it easy on my right arm!