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22 November 2011: I was admitted to the Freedom Unit for the performance of the 'Zenith' of my surgical treatment for Breast Cancer . . . a left Mastectomy.  I got up at 7.00am so I could eat a 'light breakfast' of cereal, toast, and tea {ie, the normal constituents of my breakfast for many years} before 7.30am.  I was permitted to drink 'clear fluids' up until 10.00am - for me this meant only water, as tea without milk is not 'my cup of tea'!  In my diary I reported 'lazing in bed before getting ready to go to the Hospital by 11.00am.  As I walked past the Co-op in St Budeaux to catch the bus - I met Mary Terry, an erstwhile colleague who lives in St Budeaux.  Mary T was quite aghast on receiving the information that I was on my way to be admitted for a Mastectomy and exclaimed 'Oh you poor thing! And on your own!'

For the second time I went to the Freedom Unit - but not at the crack of dawn this time, thank goodness!  I went to the Theatre at 2.30pm.  I was told that I regained consciousness about 5.00pm.  I was taken to a single room in Lynher Ward on Level 5.  The next couple of hours 'came and went'.  I vomited a bit of mucus back with wind - and thereafter felt hungry!  The Tea/Supper Lady came along and I drank some soup, ate bread and butter, and had ice-cream for pudding: at least my throat was not sore this time round.

Although I had been 'starved of oral fluids' I had, indeed, had lots of I/V saline intra-operatively - so I suggested to my attendant Nurse that I ought to make a first attempt at PUing; my Nurse brought along a commode, and small packet of tissues and a packet of wet wipes.  The drain - which was securely sutured to my skin at the lateral end of my incision - had to be 'negotiated around', as it was attached to a closed drainage system comprised of long tubing at the end of which was a drainage bag.

I asked my Nurse - if it was permissible for me to plug-in my mobile phone charger into an adjacent socket to which she said 'OK': gone are the days when using a mobile phone anywhere in the building was a punishable offence; mobile phones have undoubtedly over the years become less 'interfering' to the digital equipment in hospital - even if they were in the first place; eventually, all the notices prohibiting the use of mobiles were taken down and in some areas replaced by notices saying 'mobile phones may be used here'.  It goes without saying that mobiles should be used with discretion - wherever the are used in the public arena.

I phoned Anne, my school friend of over 50 years: Anne had promised to phone me whilst I was in hospital but I had been taken back to Lynher Ward instead of Norfolk Ward, so it was imperative that I preclude the necessity for a extensive telecom search . . . to find me.  I spent a relaxing postoperative evening texting - after all, my mobile was a new toy which I had only had since August, and I still needed practise!

In due course, I phoned Ann, however Walter my brother-in-law answered.  Walter said '. . . I understand that you are only staying in a short time . . .': it was apparent that Walter's 'ear had been bent' by his wife who had exclaimed - to me - 'You can't go home after just one night, you're having a major operation!'  Walter was calmly reassuring [as he would be - having been married to my sister for nearly 50 years] and realised that his wife was remembering her experiences of having a mastectomy in 1981; furthermore both his wife and sister-in-law remembered nursing women after mastectomy when a Student Nurses in the 1950s and 1960s when mastectomy necessitated a stay of several days in hospital: things were done just so differently . . ..  Endlich, I spoke to Ann and - despite her expostulations - I managed to survive her obvious concern for her little sister.  However . . . when I said I would be going home with my wound drain in situ she had this to say '. . . my goodness, that sounds a bit of a drag!' - a favourite riposte of hers.  Actually - in this instance - it was of course true!  In any event, Jenny explained to this patient that I was far less likely to get infection in my wound, and also my morale would be boosted postoperatively, if I went home as soon as possible: I knew this rationale for early discharge but could not allay my sister's alarm.  After I had used the commode once, I was expected to walk across the corridor to the toilet opposite - carrying my drainage bag with me.  I asked the Nurse to hang the bag - somehow - from the side of my bed; she used a large safety pin and inserted this through a hole - especially provided on the top of the bag - and then pinned the bag to my sheet.  The Nurse was at pains to warn me NOT to forget the pin was there, when I got out of bed!  Quite so!    

The room was very hot.  The heating was turned up very high.  Lynher Ward houses patients who have had plastic surgery so, of necessity, large wounds cannot be covered by piles of bedclothes [but at least the patients now have cotton cellular blankets, not duvets!].  Furthermore, the windows in the hospital are fixed so that the lower sash cannot be opened more than 4 inches.  Persons have been known to fall out - accidentally or deliberately - from open windows.  [During JH's Nursing Training, one of the patients at the Elizabeth Garrett Anderson Hospital jumped out of a window and fell two floors down: she landed on the roof of the Hospital's entrance porch - so she was prevented from falling a greater distance.  However, she had numerous injuries and required admission to a trauma ward in another hospital.  The distress of the patient in the bed next to the window is still so real to JH: this poor lady had no speech - being aphasic following a stroke - each time someone walked near the window in this small ward she gesticulated to them and sobbed.]  Also, I was very aware of a constant hum which emanated from the air conditioning system which was positioned one floor down under a flat roof outside the window which, of necessity, I had opened the crack allowed. [I had been aware of this hum for years: in the past, when I attended Trust Meetings in the Conference Rooms below Lynher, everyone in the room had to speak up - if we had the windows open - or stew!  Derriford Hospital was built in the days before a vast amount of electronic equipment emanated heat.]

An Evening-Drink-Trolley-Pusher gave JH a mug of  Horlicks plus a packet of biscuits.  I lay down on my bed at about 11.15pm feeling very relaxed - but aware that lying on my left side was not all that comfortable, as comfort was impeded by the drain!  The Nurse warned me that she would need to empty the drainage bag periodically, but this emptying was to my advantage as the bag was not such a nuisance when I carried it to the toilet in the night.  My 'vital signs' were recorded but not very intrusively - except for the electronic thermometer being poked in my ear . . . but this is much more acceptable to the patient than sucking on an oral thermometer as in my day.



 
 
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