Full Nodes Clearance

7th July 2022. The Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Margate

Full nodes clearance ✅

Back again, same protocol. I was allocated a bed and set-up on a ward to wait for my name to be called up on the whiteboard. The nervous start setting in. This time it's a much bigger surgery, removing all of my nodes and an over night stay.

Prepared this time for the awful nausea that might follow, I requested the anti-sickness first which was put through my cannula whilst I was under the general anaesthetic - an absolute game changer!

Surprised to wake up to no drain my surgeon later reassured me one was not needed as my body would simply heal itself.

Coming out of surgery, I spent a short time in the recovery room before I was wheeled down to my own little room with an ensuite - what a bonus! Hooked up to a drip with a cannula for the next few hours, feeling groggy and sore drifting in and out of sleep as the general anaesthetic wore off. Being woken up by the routine blood pressure checks and losing all track of time.

I was woken up late in the night from a tingling pain, I looked down to see the huge build up of fluid under my arm. Alarmed I pressed my buzzer, within minutes a nurse responded. It seemed that the night shift were a lot slower to check on patients and had not noticed the fluid building up until I urgently needed it draining.

The process itself wasn't painful and it instantly gave me a feeling of relief as it took away all of the growing pressure. No longer uncomfortable and able to drift back to sleep until breakfast was being delivered.

I was discharged by lunchtime. Another couple of days wearing these sexy compression socks, covered in bruises, poppin’ painkillers and paranoid to lift my arm up but so relieved to be discharged and going home to recover.