How it became Now: Part 3

After Surgery I just thought that I was going to heal up for a week and then start my radiation therapy on Monday.
But no, there was much more to do, and the hospital started calling me on Tuesday to set things up and I was not high on vicodin because I was feeling pain, but slightly stoned. So I didn't quite know what I was doing or setting up.

Temporary Balloon
First off, I had a temporary balloon and tube installed in my boob. And I know I wasn't feeling well because I didn't even make a feeble boob tube joke until 8 days after installation. The balloon was inflated with liquid and the tube (16 inches long!) looked like a low rent hydration tube in a sport bladder pack.
But they couldn't put the real catheter with all it's ports in because they didn't know if I would be having the radiation and the real catheter is tres expensive. So they put this place holder in during your operation and when you get your final pathology results and it shows no spread into your lymph then you can get the real one put in.
So on Thursday I went to sign up at the Cedars Cancer Center (at the Cedar's Breast Center across the street they have a valet and free parking, but at the Cancer Center you have to pay two bucks. So part of me wanted to park for free and walk, but I had had surgery three days before so I really couldn't walk. But it just seems totally awful to have people pay for parking while having radiation or chemo treatments!) and said Hi to Dr. M, the big puppy of a radiologist and made an appointment for the next day to get "measured."
Then we drove across the street to the Breast Center and it's free valet parking. I had taken a pain pill so I was kind of floaty as I walked into the exam room. My lovely surgeon, who still seemed to be about 12, asked if she minded if Dr. So and So watched and I have no modesty issues and feel that if anything I can do can be useful then yes! Hell Yes! Let Dr. So and So in and see my balloons get switched.
Now here is just another thing that strikes me about treatment. Dr. So and So was about 55-60 and clearly the senior doctor. But he didn't really grok the newer treatment. Which means that if I had seen him I might not have been offered the balloon radiation, because he wasn't comfortable with it. Similarly if I had been treated somewhere else, where they didn't have the expensive brachytherapy treatment unit it wouldn't have been an option.
Okay, the balloon removal. I'm lying there doing my Maja Desnuda impersonation again and they numb up my breast. (I love having lydocaine in my breast. It makes everything better.) Dr. D is showing Dr. S&S how to inflate the balloon to it's maximum to see if it breaks before putting it in, then she deflates it and puts it in the applicator, and I'm starting to get nervous. That thing looks huge and hard - and inflated the balloon is really BIG.
So I feel my temp balloon being deflated, which feels nice. And then it's yanked right out of my boob! And I feel a wash of warm liquid flow down my side. It looks like a tequila sunrise, the liquid has stained the terry robe (the Breast Center is just like a SPA and you wander around in a terry robe) a glorious wash of orange and pinks. Then there's all this shoving and pushing and grunting while the real catheter and balloon is shoved back into my breast. Then they inflate it and now I have my gorgeous, high-tech, 7 port balloon catheter in place and inflated so that I have a two inch sphere of liquid on one side, making balance a new and exciting thing.