Everyone, I am sorry I had no chance to update you earlier today. I have been at the hospital all day long.
Mary Ellen had a vein blockage in the transplanted flap tissue on the left side. The surgeon was unable to save the flap.
The worst part is that Mary Ellen told the resident on duty overnight again and again that she thought it was encapsulated, engorged, and without vein function. She told him this very clearly and she was in great pain, The details of this is a long story, but basically she was discounted by a man who had less medical knowledge than Mary Ellen herself. When the surgical people arrived in the morning, she was rushed to the OR stat.
Writhing in pain, frightened and angry, Mary Ellen pushed a random button on her phone and got her friend Colleen. Colleen mobilized. She called Cathy, who ran red lights en route to the hospital in her pajamas, and was able to see Mary Ellen before surgery. I rushed to the hospital, but arrived after she was in surgery.
Several hours later, Dr. Keller came out to tell me they had lost the flap. I waited to see her in recovery, but I did not want to be the person to tell her the flap was lost. The recovery room nurse told me that she already knew, but she was in a lot of pain, and while I was there I just kept advocating for more medication, letting the nurse know that Mary Ellen is particularly tough with a strong constitution and a high pain tolerance, and that she did require more pain killers. They finally relented.
Colleen came in, and as a breast surgery recovery room nurse herself, she quickly discovered that Mary Ellen's drain was full and elevated above her incision. As politely as she could muster, Colleen asked the nurse to empty and lower the drain. The nurse did this, but then kicked Colleen out of recovery.
Colleen and I waited four hours in ME's room, being told she would be brought up "any minute." When she finally came up, we were deep in discussion with the nursing manager about what had gone wrong in the night. An investigation is underway, and Mary Ellen has requested a formal copy of that report.
I told the nurse manager to be absolutely sure that neither the night nurse nor the resident would set foot in Mary Ellen's room or she was sure to bludgeon them with her IV pole and strangle them with the tubes. She agreed to have both of them reassigned.
After quite a while, we finally got some big-picture good news: Dr. Kostroff, the first breast surgeon, who did the mastectomy phase, came in to the room, still in evening clothes, having recently heard of the setback. When ME asked her "how are you?" she said she was almost as devastated as Mary Ellen. She said that although she rarely gives preliminary pathology results, she had to bring ME the early good news:
The cancer might be only stage zero, and there may be no need for chemo. Now, before you all get your hopes too high, there will be more tests done to look for any other cancer that has emerged from the ducts, but so far they have not found any except very small bits of cancer, and the sentinal nodes are negative, so there may be an excellent overall prognosis!!!!
That news helped, but Mary Ellen is still devastated at losing her chance of cosmetic success to a resident's negligence.
Vanna and I helped ME get to the bathroom and then resettled comfortably, and Vanna was going to guard her quiet space so she might sleep, and I left the hospital finally.
I will see her first thing tomorrow. I'm sorry I can't update through the day, but I have no computer access until I get home.
Pray for Mary Ellen to see the big picture, be relieved from pain, and to refrain from justifiable homicide.
More tomorrow, Kathleen
Just before the surgery on October 11, 2010
Waiting for surgery
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