Breast Cancer Blog

Friday, October 26, 2012

Today Sue had skin graft surgery at the plastic surgeon’s office. The skin grafts were necessary because a small strip of skin on each of her incisions had died. Left on its own to heal, it would have taken 6 to 8 weeks for new skin to grow over the gaps. Sue could not wait that long to heal because she needs to start chemotherapy. With the skin grafts, it should heal in about a week. We have an appointment set up for next Friday to have the dressings removed from today’s surgery. We should have a better idea next Friday when she will be ready to start chemotherapy.

Today’s surgery was only suppose to be about 3 hours total time as an outpatient. It lasted about 7 hours. During surgery, her blood pressure dropped so low, the doctor thought she was having an allergic reaction to the anesthesia. They gave her something to counter the reaction, and her blood pressure stabilized. When the doctor came out to talk to me after the surgery, I mentioned that they had just increased her blood pressure medication. He said the combination of the anesthesia and the recent increase in her blood pressure medication is probably what caused the reaction. There was no rash or any other sign of an allergic reaction. The doctor is going to communicate this information to her regular doctor who is taking care of her blood pressure medication.

They had her wait in the recovery room a few hours longer than normal just to make sure she was stabilized before letting her go home.

Earlier in the week, Sue and Cheryl went to the Coborn Cancer Center to pick out a free wig, plus some hats and other stuff. She is thinking of getting her hair cut in the same style as the wig she picked out, because she really likes the wig.

We would like to thank everyone again for all of your loving support and the many cards.

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