Piece of Cake!!

June 22

My surgery was a piece of cake.  Honestly.  The worst part was the incision under my arm where Dr. B removed two lymph nodes, but still, not bad at all. Just a little tender and I couldn't move my arm much or lift anything heavier than 10 pounds for a few days.  I'm not complaining, though.  All in all, it was nothing. AND, I got warmed blankets.  Warmed blankets have become my favorite part of this journey. There's no way to describe the happiness I feel when a sweet nurse places a warm blanket over me.  It's heaven.

The worst part of this journey has just been waiting ... and not knowing what would happen ... or how I would feel.

Here's a pic of me just before I went into the OR.  Warning: this is NOT a fashion pic!!  See the sweet warm blanket?  Ah.  Feels so good.

Today, I saw Dr. B for my post-op visit.  He said I was healing beautifully and that he was ready to send me off to my oncologist, Dr. G.  He looked at my path report and said, "Knowing Dr. G, I'm fairly certain that he will recommend chemotherapy."  Oh, really?  That was news to me.  I thought radiation was all I had to do.  I didn't know at that time that Dr. B had received the path reports from the out-of-state labs and I was so confused that I forgot to ask for copies.  Don't forget to get copies of your path reports.  I had Dr. B's receptionist fax them to me the next day.  And THEN I knew why I would probably have chemo.  I knew why I had to keep reading information so I'd be prepared when I met with Dr. G.  Once again, unless you don't want to know anything specific about your breast cancer, research everything you can find about breast cancer and get copies of your path reports.  I'm a researcher at heart, so this part was especially important to me.  As I've said, though, take what you want and leave the rest!  It won't hurt my feelings if you leave it all.  Promise.

I Love Dr. B!

June 2 - Part Two

These beautiful flowers came from good friends of mine who live in Wyoming.  All the way from Wyoming!  Well, not literally, but still ... love these sweet girls.

From the radiologist's back to outpatient for surgery.  Actually, this part was kinda fun.  There was a lot of laughter in the pre-op area.  Dr. B. has a very dry wit and he was cracking me UP.  I almost forgot where I was and what I was doing!  My anesthesiologist came in and introduced himself like this: "Hello, Mrs. E., I'm Patrick."  I've never, ever, ever had a physician introduce  him/herself by his/her first name.  I fell in love with him right on the spot.  He gave me a little shot in my IV, and before I got to the operating room, I was out like a light.  It was a beautiful, beautiful sleep.

Waiting for surgery ... my sister took this pic of me with my daughter.  She's about 7 months pregnant here with her second child, a boy, named Charlie.  I love his name.  And I adore her.  She's such a good mama to Sophia and I know she'll be amazing with Charlie, too.

Here I am walking to my pre-op prep room.  They gave me a little pink backpack and I put it right on.  My sister thought it would be a funny picture, and it really sorta is.  Sorta.

While I was in the recovery room, Dr. B told the "precious duo" (and my very good friend, Leigh Ann) that there was no lymph node involvement and that he got clear margins.  Oh, happy day!! We all thought I was home free ... a little radiation and I'd be good as new.

It took a few weeks to get the pathology report back so I waited ... and researched ... and waited ... and read some more about this ugly disease. I learned that there is much more to breast cancer than clear margins and negative lymph nodes.  A lot more.  A whole lot more. And now the waiting for the path reports became almost unbearable.