I Made It!!

Just wanted to write a short blog post to let everyone know that I'm home from the hospital and doing as well as expected.  I made it!!!! Although I definitely have quite a bit of pain, I'm trying to manage it as best I can with the meds they gave me (which in turn makes me very sleepy so it seems like I'm sleeping away about 80% of my days - but that's ok).

Surgery day wasn't nearly as awful as I feared it would be.  I went in, they got me registered, and it all went smoothly from there.  I did have to have some dye injected into my "good" breast because they were going to do a biopsy during surgery just to make sure there was nothing  in any of the lymph nodes.  That was probably the most painful procedure I've had to-date, but I made it through.  After that, my surgeon came in to talk to me and it was off to the operating room.  Apparently they had me completely under anesthesia in a matter of minutes because beyond being moved onto the operating table, I don't remember a darn thing! (although my surgeon told me we held hands and chatted about the happy dreams I would have during surgery...how nice!).  I don't even remember the recovery room, although my plastic surgeon said he had a nice chat with me in there, as well.  Wow - pretty strong meds, I guess.  My mom and Ed held up really well, too - and my mom's best friend who lives in Milwaukee came up to lend her support which was great.  I was on a pain pump for probably the first 24 hours after surgery which helped a lot, but I really didn't do much else besides sleep and have my vitals taken every hour or two.  I had to take a few walks and practice my breathing which was painful, but otherwise, nothing was all that bad. I also had a few visitors and lots of flower deliveries which was so much fun!

So now I'm home and doing my best to get around the house, eat, and do other normal things.  But I'm also taking it very easy, trust me! My surgeon called last night to check on me and said that the pathology lab was still working on dissecting my breast tissue - apparently what is still remaining is microscopic and scattered throughout the breast and only 1 lymph node so that's great news.  My new chest is a little scary looking but I'm trying not to focus on that too much.

Anyway, not much else from here - I'm hanging in there as well as I can and am so thankful to all of you for the cards, emails, Facebook messages, meals, flowers, gifts, and all the other generosity that has come my way throughout this ordeal.  I'll post another update in a day or two when I'm hopefully feeling a lot better!