Tuesday, April 13, 2010

Convalescing, Or The Beginning of the End

So I'm a week out of surgery and I'm on the mend. I had a double mastectomy, which included a simple mastectomy on the left and a modified radical on the right. Modified radical means they also cut out some lymph nodes from the armpit area. Because of this, I have tremendous pain in my right arm. But for those of you who remember how I was diagnosed, you will know that this is nothing new for me.

I got the pathology report back yesterday, and I'm pleased to report good news. The left breast was entirely cancer free. They extracted only nine lymph nodes from the right side, only two of which had any remaining signs of cancer. The dead tumors that they found were around 1 mm (about the width of a hair). Overall, it's an excellent report, which means an excellent prognosis.

My surgery was last Tuesday. I barely slept the night before. I got out of bed at 4 A.M., showered, and woke up my friend who was coming to the hospital with me. Before I left, I put on lipstick (in honor of this book, which I honestly have yet to read):



Then I took a sexy shot:



I took some token power objects with me to the hospital. One was a sock monkey I named Emily. Emily was a gift from my officemates:



I promised my friend that I would sing a song right after I got out of surgery. I sang it several times in the recovery room, and then belted it out on the way to my room so that my family would be able to find me. My friend got some of it on video.



I am now resting comfortably at my parents home for the next couple of weeks. I still have the post-operative drains in me. They are quite a nuisance. I am on Percocet at 10 mg. Because of this, I have spent most of my time here:

4 comments:

Cassa said...

I love the song! I see you surrounded in love. Bless you Heather.

Brett said...

You're my hero.

Anonymous said...

holy cow heather -- I had no idea you were sick..it's been so long since we caught up... But I'm glad you're on the road to recovery!!! Goodluck!

Anonymous said...

that last comment was from joe m from back in high school

-joe m