At Home, With A Smaller Lung

Last Friday morning we arrived at the Day Of Surgery Admission (DOSA) office at Christchurch Public Hospital.  All went apparently well and at 8:30 AM I was in the CT scan waiting area for insertion of the wire marker.  Only problem was that the DOSA people had missed the requirement for a blood clotting test.  This took about 30 minutes to arrange so I was behind in the project shortly after start up.

Shortly after 9:00 AM the procedure to insert the wire started.  First up I was scanned and marks drawn on my chest to indicate the position and depth of the tumor.  This was followed with a local anesthetic injection into my chest wall, which was OK, just the normal sting.  Then a longer needle was used to inject local into my lung, that was a  very strange feeling. 

A small cut was made in my chest with s scalpel and then various needles and tubes were inserted.  After each insertion I was rescanned to make sure the main tube was lining up with the tumor.  Once this was confirmed a wire coil was pushed down into the lung along with some blue dye to help the surgeon find the tumor.  Finally one last CT scan and a chest X-Ray to make sure all was as it should be.

At about 10:00 AM I was wheeled into the prep room and then into the operating theater.  Most of my discussion at this point was to the anesthesia team.  I then got a wee injection and woke up about two hours later in recovery.  All had gone well and a wedge was removed from my lung with the wire coil attached.  The surgeons had not been able to actually locate the tumor, but were highly confident that it was in the center of the wedge removed - the problem was that the tumor was so small it could not even be found by palpating by hand.  After about a week the results of the pathology evaluation will be available, the surgeon will call me then.

As usual the hospital care was great, but I was not able to sleep well, there was far too much going on in the ward.  I have a wound under my breast area about 5 cm long, another smaller one down my right side, and a stitched hole where my wound drain had exited.  These will all be tidied up in about a week, but I can shower from now on.

While in the hospital I was strongly encouraged to walk and do deep breathing exercises, I need to keep those up for several weeks.  I feel OK now, very tender and at times painful from my right shoulder down.  This should come right in the next 3-4 days.  I am also very tired, this should also resolve within the next week.