Another Milestone

Another milestone has been reached in Laura’s battle with cancer. She returned home from the HCH today after 5 days of recovery following reconstruction surgery on February 3, 2010. Dr. Jayant Agarwal was the surgeon. The procedure was a harvest and transfer of tissue creating what is called a flap (French work flappe, meaning paddle) that forms the new breast. This is a much more invasive surgery than silicon implants, but is supposed to be more realistic and comfortable once healed. The procedure finds and connects blood vessels which spread and grow over time. It all seemed to go well. Laura had to remain in the hospital for several days though because they had to continually check the blood flow and make sure the transplanted tissue remained healthy. There was one cause of concern. On Sunday, the nurses checking the tissue were worried about what they called a blood collection in the new breast. They scheduled a minor surgery that would create a small incision to drain the trapped blood. However, Dr. Agarwal decided that it would be unnecessary and scheduled a two week antibiotic regimen that would suffice. So, we got Laura home today. The nurses positioned a PICC line so the antibiotic solution, vancomycin, could be injected easily.

We were visited this evening by Kris Robinette, a home health care nurse, who taught us how to inject the solutions. First is a 10 ml saline solution injection followed by the vancomycin, then, another saline solution dose and finally 3 ml of Heparin. The entire process takes about two hours. We will have to do it twice a day for two weeks. In two weeks, Laura has another appointment with Dr. Agarwal. Laura also has three fluid collection bags hanging off her that collect discharged fluids. She has to empty these each day and measure and record the contents.
Laura is doing well and is comfortable and mostly pain free. She is walking a little slowly and hunched over from the surgery, but is in good spirits and happy to be home.