Anyone have the paravertebral block when having mastectomy?

lndsmom

Has anyone had the paravertebral block for mastectomy? My surgeon has offered it to me, but I'm a little nervous about it...especially since I'm told I have to be fully awake with no anti-anxiety meds to receive it. The pros are that there is less general anesthesia and less need for pain meds after surgery. Just curious if anyone here has had it and what your experience was...

Penny

Skeezie

I had the block...
I had the block twice, once for the Sentinel Node Biopsy and then for the mastecomy. While I was awake, they gave me a massive dose of Verset and I was in la-la land. I felt the first couple of needes of lydocain but never felt the other needles. It kept pain away for 24 hrs. I had a simple mastecomy and honestly, excpet for the pain in the butt drain, there really wasn't a w3hole lot of actual surgical pain. But soreness. I can handle soreness all day. But I was pretty comfortable with the block. My doctor didn't tell me about it, the anesthiologst did when I was in pre-op. I rmembered my niece had it when she had a double mastecomy a couple of years ago. The anesthesliogist (can't spell tonite) are the ones who can really tell you about it and they do give a sedative. Get al the info you can before you make up your mind and that will be in pre-op just before the surgery.

Good luck, when is your surgery? By the way, I did it twice and would do it again. I felt it was way worth it.

Hugs, Judy :-)