Wow life can sure throw you some curves can't it! Around the 22nd of July I received a call from the Waikato Hospital Board, a man called Dean who is the 'waiting for reconstructive surgery' man, do I want to go ahead with having tram flap breast reconstruction? For those overseas if you have a mastectomy because of cancer here part of your rehabilitation includes having reconstructive surgery to allow your life to return to as normal as possible. Our waiting lists here however are very long and any emergency surgery will be slotted in before yours. At the start I was told it will be at least 18 months before I would hear then at the beginning of this year I was examined by a member of the plastic surgery team and told it may be another 18 months or maybe even never. So I put it out of my head. I hadn't even bothered pondering on the if's and but's of it as I figured when my name did finally get to the top of the list I would be told a good 6 months before the operation and could research it all then. Ah the plans of mice and men... Dean asked me to tell him right then and there whether or not I wanted to go ahead with the surgery, I slightly hesitantly said 'yes'. Two and a half years of seeing lopsided self in the mirror and one good summer of not being able to wear clothing comfortably certainly pushed me in favour of a change.
Two days later Kent and I drove over to see Mr Stuart McNicoll at Braemar Hospital, my operation was to take place a week later on the 31st July. We were both impressed with Stuart, his experience and with the examples of his work that he showed us. Our Public Health system has been tweaking itself in the last few years and now the Public Hospitals contract out some work to the private sector, I was one of these ops. Braemar is a newly built private hospital and Stuart a private surgeon, feeling very lucky we headed home to prepare.
It could not have been a worse time for me to leave at my work. Of the two Property Managers I work with one went off very sick and not likely to return for at least a week and the other, the week of my surgery, left to go to a family tangi (funeral). In NZ a tangi takes at least 3 days if not longer. None of this was preventable and it left our bosses with a none existant Rental Department, Jacqueline our Office Manager, ably stepped into the breach.
My operation was 10 hours long and I ended up staying in the hospital 8 nights, it should have been only 5 but I had a nausea problem with one of the medications which needed to be sorted. 8 nights there and my only visitors were Kent and long time friend Maxine from Rotorua who each spent a day with me and my neice Diane and nephew Lyall with his two sons, what happened to my own children only an hour or so away... When I came out of surgery I had 4 drains and a catheter all of which were removed in the next couple of days and I was encouraged to get up walking fairly quickly. I was without pain but my buttocks felt like 5 ton of concrete that my lower back ached to hold up for a few days. I walked hunched over as you can imagine and after my lower back sorted itself my upper back began to protest as well. Maxine came and brought me home on 8th July, I am so grateful to have her in my life.
I started work from home the day after getting back, luckily I can do a lot of my work over the internet. I have settled down to doing my usual 4 hours a day but at home I can do them as I like and stop when I like. Yesterday was the first day I was able to get dressed and to celebrate Kent and I went out in the car into town. Kent has been great looking after me and doing all the cooking. I am doing really well, no pain and no meds, healing well and am even walking up straight now.
It has all been slightly surreal and very sudden but I am happy to be in a country where our health system looks after me to this extent. I'm not sure when I will be back on the Harley but summer is looking good again:)
