When I was about to begin chemotherapy, my oncologist recommended that I have a port implanted. He explained that the procedure was fairly simple - same day surgery, twilight sleep. Although he cautioned that the site of the incision would feel sore for a few days, he told me that the value of the port would outweigh any discomfort. Since I already liked this doctor and trusted him at first meeting, I agreed.
I made an appointment with my breast surgeon. I did some reach online, spoke to some breast cancer survivors and was convinced that I made the right decision. On the day of the surgery, I arrived at the breast center with my husband, who was told to return in two hours. They ushered me into a procedure room. The anesthesiologist hooked up my IV; they placed me in the recliner; my surgeon and the nurses entered and I went blissfully into la-la land. The surgeon numbed the area, told me to expect some pushing and pulling, but I really was too far out of it to feel anything but a haze. (I always get totally zonked with any amount of anesthesia.)
Before I knew it, they were sitting me up and I had a big bandage over the right side of my chest, above my breast. My husband came to help me dress (my left side was still not cooperating since my mastectomy) and we left for home. Surprise! I was in pain. Now, I had survived a lumpectomy, wide excision, sentinel node biopsy, axillary disseciton, a bout of cellulitis and a mastectomy and I had never been in as much pain as this. Something was wrong.
We stopped at the drug store on the way home to fill the pain medication prescription and I cried in the car while my husband went into the store. He had to practically carry me into the house. I downed two pain pills and slept. The next morning was the same. We called the surgeon. He said to come right in. He checked his handiwork and could find nothing amiss. He sent me for an x-ray to see if somehow my shoulder had gotten dislocated during the surgery. (Now that was a novel idea and one that hadn't been mentioned as a possible danger.) The xray was negative and the surgeon was at a loss for my pain. Since he had been through several surgeries with me, he knew that I was not prone to complaints.
