OK, I'm up now

Now I wonder why I was in such a hurry to get to this part????

Seriously though, life looks pretty good, hour by hour, it's getting better. I guess I just wasn't prepared for the intensity of the pain of an "800 lb. elephant" sitting on my chest. It hurts to move, it hurts to breathe and it hurts to sit still, but all those things still have to be done--moving, breathing and sitting still. The percocet is keeping the pain controllable, but I'm watching that clock like a drug-addict!

Discharge was the usual UVA chaos, too many people running around, not enough information, too much waiting. Once they decide to cut you loose, your service goes to the bottom of the list! But we finally made it out, and we will sort out the follow-up appointments and the post-op stuff when the weekend is over.

I took a peek down my shirt this morning--not too bad, I really expected worse. I still look like a play-by-play board in the locker room with all the markers and arrows and circles, but from the top view, I just look like a smaller-chested girl. There's poofy skin and bruised stuff and incision lines, but I'm covered with a clear stretchy Saran-type wrap, so I look a little bit like a computer-generated avatar to myself. Not bad at all.

The "Plastics Team" came in this morning and had a ritual viewing-and-poking. They all seemed pretty pleased with themselves, so I guess all is well. Dr. Brenin came in and tried to help me into some sort of elastic garment that plastics had ordered, but we both gave up -- he in frustration, me in pain. I've decided that Dr. B is a bit of a worrier--he errs on the side of caution, and I like that. He is concerned about the "thinness" of my skin and doesn't want to put any pressure on the surface that will delay healing. I'm definitely OK with the "no pressure" part of his plan.

I may be rambling here, but this is what he told us after the surgery: He was able to remove all the bad stuff, and leave a goodly amount of skin for plastics to work with in their reconstruction. Now we wait for the pathology report to tell us about the size of the tumors, the types of the tumors, and the aggressiveness of the tumors, along with the examination of the "edges" or "margins." This will all plug into a matrix formula that is called "Staging" of my cancer. This staging will determine what kind of post-operative therapy will be required--radiation, chemo, and hormonal & targeted therapies. Dr. Brenin said that radiation now seems "unlikely." If that holds true, then we will be able to go ahead with exchanging the saline expanders that were put in yesterday with the silicone implants on Nov. 14. In any case, we'll be coming back up here in about 7-10 days to take the surgical drains out, maybe the same trip?

Right now my job is to get rested and healed enough to travel home. Shirley tells me that the carpet installers did their job yesterday (grumbling about round houses the whole time), and the dear sweetie vacuumed AND cleaned my kitchen too! Thank you Shirley! I can't wait to see it!

I'm in good spirits and have a good nurse (thank you Bill!). Mark & Jo will be coming back from their weekend trip tomorrow night, and then look out--party times begin again!

(Just kidding, Mom).