February 25: Surgery Day

This was it, the day had come for surgery! It was so hard to wrap my head around the fact that they were going to cut into my chest remove this tumor and BAM my sodium was going to be normal!?! Although the thought of finally having normal sodium was exciting, I was terrified. I was twelve hundred miles away from home, away from Dylan and Rylie and was about to undergo a major thoracic surgery.

Mayo clinic has 87, fully functioning and most often booked all day everyday, operating rooms. As a comparison Johns Hopkins has 33, and Duke has 51. 

The pre-op waiting process was probably the worst part of my entire trip. Luckily I was having some bad nausea and dry heaves from not being able to take sodium that morning so we were put in a holding bed earlier than we thought. We took silly photos and tried to make jokes about what a "big deal" I was while we waited for surgery.

The surgery was about 2 hours which went seamlessly. Dr. Cassivi was able to remove the entire gland through the 3 incisions and did not have to use a chest tube. The tumor was 2.7cm and well encapsulated within the gland.

I'm not going to lie, when I woke up I was in more pain then I was giving child birth! The pain was horrific, every breath hurt! But after about 2 hours in the PACU, I had the most unbelievable sensation.... I had to pee!!!!! It had been almost 11 weeks since I actually felt the need to pee! I know that sounds crazy but holy cow it was incredible! I filled the bed pan time and time again. It was evident that the surgery was a success. I was no longer producing excessive, inappropriate amounts of ADH.  2 hours post op and I was like a brand new women, it made all the pain worth it. Finally after close to 5 hours in PACU I was able to move up to a regular room where my sister and Eric where waiting for me.

Labs were drawn and it had been almost 24 hours since my last dose of sodium and I was at 146!!! LOL, in the high range!!! Latter that evening I was perfectly normal at 144. And yes, I was still peeing. Plan was to get up and moving the next day and be discharged back to hotel then finally head home!