Drain Free

Yesterday I had another shampoo :)  A sweet friend came by to visit and she french braided my hair.  I then got jeans and a shirt on while another sweet friend brought her two little girls over to hang with my kids so I could go to the doctor.  Claire and Hannah were thrilled to have little ones in the house, Avery notsomuch!  Dr S pulled all four drains!  He also removed the tape from the incisions.  Good thing my boobs are numb or he might have had to surgically remove me from the ceiling.  I was feeling so good being drain free that dh and I stopped at the new McD''s and had fries and hot fudge sundae.  Came home and took a nice long nap.  Dinner was delivered, eaten and we all headed out to RLG.  Yes I went too!  It was just down the street so if I tanked John could drive me home. I made it the whole two hours sitting there slightly stoned :)  It felt good to be out.  I also slept in bed last night!  Bliss.  Today I am laying low in bed just because.  I feel good but don't want to overdo it.  I have plans to shower in a little bit.  Recovery is happening.
Ian asked me last night if I was considered a breast cancer survivor, John answered appropriately, your mom is a breast cancer avoider!  I'll take that for now.

One week post op

7 days ago I had my bilateral mastectomy with reconstruction surgery.  Dr L found no surprises during the mastectomy and all tissue was sent to the path lab.  Dr. S was able to place the expanders with no real problems other than my skin was a little tight.  I spent 3 nights in the hospital.  I was only supposed to be there 2 but my hemoglobin tanked and they started talking blood transfusion.  My first draw preop had me anemic I believe at a 9, thursday morning draw had me at 7.2.  Surgeon wasn't concerned as I wasn't exhibiting any other symptoms.  They redrew immediately and it had gone down to a 7.  Plan to redraw in the afternoon was made as well as an increase to the pain medication.  There was some misunderstanding in my drug induced state that I could continue the pain pump and still be eligible for release.  I had no concept of time in my stoned state but I knew getting home was key so I did not hit the pain pump after early Thursday morning.  Then they realized I was under pain medicated and uped the dosage.  Thing is the nurses were not allowed to wake me every four hours to give me pain meds.  I had to request them.  Again I was time retarded and couldn't remember if it was 5 minutes or hours ago that I had had meds.  I ended up hurling Thursday night from dinner (food was awful) and was glad that I stayed that night.  My nurse and I came to an uderstanding that she would check on me and make us much noise as possible in order for me to wake and "request" meds.  Anyways I got home friday and lived in the recliner for several days.  I have good days, horrible days and tolerable days.  I just wish they built on one another.  Yesterday was a great day, today was awful.  Not all of it is pain related it's emotional and mental as well.  I see my plastic surgeon on Wednesday to discuss what is next and have everything evaluated.  My inlaws were here for a week and just left today.  My church small group is having a lady  come and clean our house for us tomorrow.  Dinners are coming for the next two weeks at least.  We are well cared for.

11 and a half hours to go

Surgery is tomorrow at 10 am.  I am going to attempt sleep.  John will be updating via email and facebook and SL.
(Diana could you pass the updates along to Lorri?)
The kids are all crashed in our room tonight.  I'm half packed and half don't really give a rip.  Laundry is almost complete.
Apparently I'm not even awake enough to put together a unified paragraph :)

One week

The house is coming together.  Just three more rooms to tackle and then I can turn it over.  School is functioning.
Appointments are almost completed.  Deductible met, out of pocket almost met.
Still freaking out.

Plastic Surgeon

I met with the plastic surgeon today.  Preop visit.  We went over what to expect etc.  I will be in the hospital two days post surgery which means I won't get out till Thursday.   I will come home with at least three tubes coming out of my chest hooked up to drain bulbs or pain pump.  I will be on antibiotics and unable to shower for two weeks.  With that statement alone I am ready to call the whole thing off!  I have hospital preop on Wednesday and then I get to lay low and stay germ free until surgery day.  8 days and counting.

Amazing Grace by Il Divo

enjoy this video and rendition of Amazing Grace this Sunday
Amazing Grace

Tomorrow when I wake up

John and Ian will have left all ready for camping with the scouts.
I will have to make my own cup of coffee.
I will dress in BSA tan and attend BALOO training (gotta get it out of the way while I can still raise my arms and pitch a tent)
I will still hate pink even though it is Avery's favorite color.
I will be 10 days from surgery.
I will continue to be held in His hand.

First Week Of School Pictures

We have started week 7 of school.  However I did take pictures our first week but just downloaded them out of the camera.  All five of my students.

Here are my two youngest students.  They answer to "littles" although they are not so little anymore.  Neil and Avery are doing Core 1 this year.  World History part 1.

Ian flies solo with his own core.  The perk of being the middle child.  He is working on Core 4 part II of American History.  Currently entrenched in the Civil War era.

Claire and Hannah are working on Core 6 World History in depth Part I.  They work with the littles alot.   Yes Claire is now taller than me, wears a larger shoe size and borrows my pants and shirts!

Heading towards a train wreck

Now that a surgery date is set I feel like I'm headed towards a train wreck.  All this time I have moved along with a surgery day sometime in the future.  Now that it is set I am hurtling towards it.  I have a lot to do and set up so that others can take over my household.  Turning over my dirty laundry for instance is a real test of faith.  I mean really do you want your friends to know that you should really have run a bleach load oh a few months ago but you have learned to live with dingy underwear and socks.  I'm all for people bringing meals and entertaining kids but turning over the bowels of my home might be more than I can think about.  Maybe John should set that up while I am loopy on pain meds :)  I have set up rides for the kids since that will be one thing I can not do for several weeks.  Now I am off to find shirts (cheap) that I can slip on like a jacket since raising my arms won't be easy either for awhile.

Picked a plastic surgeon

I picked a plastic surgeon today.  I interviewed one yesterday and one today and John and I decided on Dr C.S. (Not the same Dr. S as my oncologist)  Quite a few things I liked about him and only one that I did not like and that was his location.  His office is about 20 minutes from home whereas the other was 5 minutes.  Not a big deal unless you have incisions across your chest.  But he will operate out of the nearby hospital.  I have given my general surgeons office to schedule at will.  They need to coordinate a full day in the OR, anesthesia, Dr L, Dr. C.S. and nursing staff.  They will pick a day and I will show up.  Looks like at least one night in the hospital maybe two.


UPDATE
Looks like October 20th is the day the surgeons aligned.