Last Sunday (Fathers Day, June 20th) was my best day yet! I felt great, didn't need a nap, my drains had started slowing down in their output, etc. I just KNEW I was turning the corner.
Well, never say anything like that out loud, right?!?
The week started off well. Last Monday, the 21st, Neil and I met with an oncologist at Evergreen Hospital for the first time. She was so sweet, and calm, and smart and reassuring, and told me everything I wanted to hear: I don't need radiation (yay!), I don't need chemo (yay!) and I don't need Tamoxifen (yay!). She'd never seen a procedure like mine, so when I 'bared all', she was quite impressed with the results.
The oncologist reiterated the necessity to have my right nipple removed, to mitigate any risk of recurrence, but said I didn't need to rush, since those icky little CA cells are slow growing and have probably been in me for a long time. She agreed that waiting until September would be fine. Stage 2 surgery (nipple off and reconstructed, and hip incisions cleaned up) is scheduled for Sept. 17th, in New Orleans. It will be a shorter surgery (1-2 hours) and I'll only have to be in the hospital overnight. We'll fly down on a Thursday and be back on Monday, so a lot less time away from home.
Last Tuesday, the 22nd, I woke up with achey hips, but didn't think too much about it. I had finished my antibiotics a couple of days before, but didn't think I'd need them anymore, because I thought I'd be pulling my drains in a couple of days. That day was the end of my 4th week and they said the drains would have to stay in for 3-4 weeks, so I assumed I could pull them then. I spoke with the nurse in the Breast Center in N.O. and we went over the log I've been keeping of the drain outputs, and she said they couldn't be pulled because I was still draining too much. ugh! She said I'd need to stay on the antibiotics, too, so she called in another prescription. Good idea. Read on...
I took Josh off to a doctors appointment that afternoon, but my butt/hips continued to ache and I started to feel really crummy. By the time we got home in the early afternoon, I was shivering and so tired. I crawled into bed, thinking I was just over-tired, but when I woke up with a raging fever, I knew it had to be something more. I thought I had the flu. I was feverish on/off all night and by the next day, there was redness that spread out from both incision sites, above and below. And, the output from my drains more than quadrupled. It was pouring out of me! I was freaking out! Neil was calm, and we marked the redness with a sharpey, to keep an eye on it. I started back on the antibiotics.
By Thursday (2 days ago), the fever was gone, and the redness had subsided - phew! I was still not feeling great, but was so much less achey and so much less freaked out, but definitely felt depressed by what felt like a set-back.
Yesterday, my body was feeling a TON better, although the kids and Neil managed to pass on their lovely crud, so I'm now under-the-weather with a cold. But, I know I will survive that. It's not great, and I'm certainly in no shape to go out on this beautiful saturday, but I know there's nothing wrong with my breasts or my hips. From the neck down, I'm great - Yay! I've been drinking tons of fluid and neti-potting it away, taking Probiotics and Wellness Formula like crazy, and resting, resting, resting (any other suggestions for making a cold go away faster? I went to eHow.com, but they didn't have any great words of advice, dang it!).
In the meantime, I've been to BreastCancer.org, where they have discussion boards. There is one board that is devoted to women who have been or are going to the New Orleans hospital that I went to. There are close to 6000 posts there now! I've learned so much more, by talking to the women there, and reading their posts... like maybe my drains will have to be in 9 weeks! egads!! And to give myself a break on how wiped out I am still (sure feeling like a baby here!). So, that's been awesome.
So, that's the skinny now. Hopefully, with the weather maybe finally starting to change in Seattle, and if I can get rid of this stupid cold, things really will turn the corner sooner rather than later, and I'll be back riding my bike and running in no time!
Love you all!
p.s. If you ever find yourself in this boat (and I surely hope you don't, of course!) you must have a Meal Maven set up meals for you. It's been the BEST THING EVAH! And, I mean it! I really, really, really don't know what I'd do without all of them. Thanks, friends!!!!
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