Surgery 1/14/11

We arrived at Huntsman at 7 am...Morgan, myself, and Morgan's dad Johnny.  We went into a small pre-op room and Morgan changed into a gown & socks.  After the usual urine sample, vitals, and consent forms; Morgan was taken down to another, separate area for an injection.  The shot was given directly into her right breast and made of nuclear material so the Dr. could locate the cancerous margin left from her original tumor.  I wasn't able to go with her, but Morgan said that the first shot was a small needle used to deaden the area and then the nuclear shot had quite a long needle to reach clear inside.  It must have been okay because she didn't act like it was any big deal when she returned to the room. 

When the nurse came into the room and listened to her heartrate, it was going quite fast....and she said, "Might we be making you nervous?"  But the rules of the room were very specific...."Whatever makes Morgan happy!" The head OR Nurse, Kitty, told Morgan that she would be there to watch over everything....to just think of her as Morgan's Guardian Angel.

Dr. Neumayer returned and drew surgical reference marks on Morgan's chest with a purple marker.  Great set of tattoos! :)  The IV was put in at 9:50 which Morgan said, "tastes weird."  At the last second, she injected something to relax her and her head fell back and hit the pillow almost immediately.  We kissed her goodbye and they rolled her down the hallway at 10:00.

Johnny and I went upstairs to have some breakfast.  My phone rang at 11:00 and it was a nurse in the OR.  She just wanted to tell me that they had started sugery, Morgan was doing great, and not to worry.  We received another call at 12:00...axillary (under-arm) lymph nodes were negative!!!!  Dr. Neumayer would be finished with her part of the surgery in about 45 minutes.  They called again just before 1:00 to tell us that three nodes were actually removed and Morgan was doing great.  Dr. Neumayer came out around 12:30 to see us.  She said that Morgan did great and that she has "amazing tissue!"  She mentioned that Dr. Agarwol had about 1 1/2 hours per side so we were planning to wait another 2 hours at least.  At 2:00 (an hour earlier than expected) Dr Agarwol came out and said that everything went as expected and she would be in recovery for about an hour.

I had asked about every person we saw if they would allow me to see Morgan in the recovery room.  It is pretty much standard practice that no one is allowed back there to preserve the other patients' privacy.  But, since Morgan is young, and she had woken up from the lumpectomy very upsent looking for me, they decided to make it happen.  When I arrived back there, she began to cry and told me that she always needed her momma and that I couldn't leave her.  She wanted to know if the other girl, who was supposed to be after her, was in surgery yet.  I said that she was in there right now....she said, "Too bad, I need to warn her.  It hurts so bad.  She needs to know it feels like an elephant is sitting on my chest."  I stayed back there with her for a while, but once she was ready to go to her room, I left to get the family up to her room for when she got there.  We made it!!!  She is cancer-free and the worst is over!!!!  Love that girl!!!