Driving to the beach?

Surgery last week went well.  I ended up staying 2 nights, kind of by force on my part because I wanted an extra night in the hospital to be taken care of and to make sure I was ready.  I'm not sure it was 100% necessary but I'm glad I stayed because I felt 100% better the 2nd day.  I left the hospital with 2 drains, one from each breast, a prescription for pain pills and one for an antibiotic (which is standard) and felt pretty good.  I did nothing Saturday and Sunday except rest.  Monday I had one appointment to get my port flushed and went back home to rest.

Tuesday I went in for my post op visit because I wanted to get my drains removed.  Laura, the Physicians Assistant, removed my right drain but said my left breast was infected and needed to leave the left drain in until the infection was gone.  She prescribed a stronger antibiotic and said to check in Wednesday to see what the progress was.  I called in Wednesday morning and then sent her a picture of my breast.  I know it's ok to send pics of your breast to the Breast Center but I did feel kind of weird doing it!  She said it looked like my breast had improved but she wanted me to check in Thursday.  Well, at 5:06pm, Wednesday (you know, 6 minutes after they closed) I started to get nervous that my breast was worse than it was in the morning.  I sent pics (again, feeling weird) to my friend Jolie, who has recently started working at the St Charles Surgical Center, and she said I should call the Breast Center and see what they thought I should do.  Again, I sent pictures, this time to a man but still a doctor.  I felt even weirder!  He called me back, said he thought it was a skin infection and could wait til Thursday but that I'd need to be seen and probably admitted.

Thursday morning I received a call to come in at 10 and bring clothes for a 2-3 day hospital stay.  Luckily I was admitted to the St Charles Surgical Center where I had my surgery.  I was kind of worried I'd be admitted to the regular hospital, which would've been fine but I was very happy I wasn't.  So far I've been in for about 24 hours.  I've had several rounds of antibiotics and 2 rounds of steroids.  My infection is getting better but I'll be here another day, at least.  I feel fine, except for my breast.  I haven't had any other symptoms so we caught the infection early enough and I'll find out tomorrow morning if I'll be leaving or staying another day.

We are so thankful that my mom is here to help with everything.  What a relief!  Bobby went back to the fire house on Thursday, after his vacation, so it was great to not have to scramble to make plans for Micah and our dogs.  We are blessed in so many ways.  I watched a movie last night that almost made me cry and I'm pretty sure I have never cried at a movie.  The only reason the tears didn't fall last night was because I knew the nurses were coming in soon.  It was kind of a fluke that I watched the movie, my friend (who will remain nameless!) brought me some dvds including The Family Stone.  It's actually a good movie and I'm not mad she brought it but one of the characters ends up dying of Breast Cancer (HELLO I kind of relate to that!).  The tears wouldn't have been because she died of Breast Cancer.  The tears would've come because this movie made me realize/remember that I am so lucky, blessed and thankful that I have made it trough cancer, twice.  I am alive to see my son grow.  I am seeing Helena grow up.  I celebrated another birthday.  Bobby and I will celebrate another anniversary.    And I have so many more things to look forward to that I don't even know about!  

Getting ready to head home from the hospital on Saturday. 

I thought it'd be fun to get 'Bobby' but 'Buddy' is good.  Micah is My Buddy and I'd love to share a coke with him.  My mom brings him to visit but it's not the same as him waking me up and then spending mornings and evenings with him.

So, my mom sends me pictures. Last night Micah got in his truck with his hat on and his alligator and was driving to the beach.

Summertime!

After a few painful months dealing with Lymphedema swelling in my left arm and breast, actually the entire left side of my body, the swelling is under control. I saw a Lymphedema therapist weekly for about 12 weeks. After my last appointment I hugged her and I'm not really a big hugger (except with Micah!). Mary and I talked about everything while she worked her magic with lymphatic drainage massage.

Tomorrow is my Stage 2 - With a Twist reconstruction surgery. I had my first surgery last February, the double mastectomy with immediate reconstruction. And another surgery in May to make everything symmetrical. Normally this would be it for reconstruction surgeries but, lucky me, I had a recurrence and then a lumpectomy to remove the second tumor. The lumpectomy left a scar 3-4 inches long on my left breast. I also have skin discoloration on my breast from radiation. Some might ask if I can deal with the scar and skin discoloration and I absolutely can. BUT! I don't have to! Women (and men) who have breast cancer are finding that they have options after treatment and don't have to be disfigured just because they had cancer. Some women have a double mastectomy and are left with scars on a flat chest where they used to have breasts. Some women have to have their nipples removed, can you imagine? But my hospital has this tattoo artist named Vinnie who flies in to do 3D nipple tattoos. My nipples were not removed.  However, they were moved in one of my surgeries and will probably be moved again. This is CRAZY stuff! It's also crazy to think that I have boobs but they aren't really boobs. So I don't think about it much:) I would show my scars, my "boobs" and my fake belly button to anyone because I think it's fascinating. But I'm not going to lift my shirt in public or without you asking so if you're interested just let me know. No pics on here either because this is not an x-rated blog!

Anyway... Pre-op today and surgery tomorrow. I'm not sure what exactly is being done but I'll find out today. I also don't know my expected recovery time or any risks associated with the surgery, not necessarily medical risks but the need for additional surgeries. I still have my port which requires monthly flushing by a nurse at the cancer center and will require surgery to remove. At this point I do not have an expected return to work date and I'm trying not to plan because I have no idea what is going to happen!

On a non-cancer related note, Bobby, Helena, Micah and I went on vacation last week to Vero Beach, Florida. My good friend Erin invited us to join her family at the Driftwood Inn for their Week 27 vacation. We had a great time! Erin's family has timeshares at the Driftwood Inn during Week 27 and has been going for years (I think like 35 years!). How nice to be included and treated like family when we arrived! We drove 11.5 hours across Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Florida to the East Coast/Atlantic Ocean and arrived on Saturday. To save money we stayed with Erin in her room for the first 2 nights and then moved to our humongous 1 bedroom/2 bath/full kitchen/balcony/closet-that-could've-been-Micah's-room room. All of us in Erin's room was a little cramped and I'm positive Erin was ready for her space back :) We spent 7 nights on the beach, in the pools, walking all over the resort (which luckily isn't that big), up stairs, down stairs and hanging out with a very welcoming and fun family.



chillin on the way to Vero Beach

Helena providing entertainment on the drive



Micah's Spider Man kite up in the sky

I think she was practicing












Bobby, Micah and Helena kayaking with some of our new friends/family.
For those of you who know me well, you know I don't like to put forth much energy on vacation. Luckily Bobby knows me well and didn't even ask if I wanted to go kayaking.

Huge fan of the pool!




not a huge fan of the sand

The Atlantic Ocean

 

East Coast sand

We spent quite a bit of time in these chairs.

 

Heading home