Surgery complete...

What a relief when things turn out better than one's
imagination will lead one to fear.

There's one long incision from the middle of her chest
to just under her arm. No skin grafts.
Two drain tubes that I empty and record the quantity
twice a day.

Surgery started at 1 pm Thursday, lasted almost three
hours, spent two hours in recovery and she was back
home before 2 pm Friday. She has refused to take anything
for pain. Well, I talked her into taking one Motrin when
she mentioned her lower back was stiff. She argued
about taking that! She insists that there is only a tiny
bit of discomfort and I'm not seeing any signs that would
contradict that. (Her bottle of Percocet is looking pretty
good to me.)

The surgeon said they did not remove all the cancer.
The team decided that removing everything surgically
would make her healing too risky and delay radiation.
She has a follow-up visit with the oncologist on Thursday
and the surgeon on Friday. The surgeon is hoping the healing
will be complete in three weeks so radiation can be started
soon after that.

And, in the meantime, she's still getting herceptin infusions
every three weeks. Indefinitely. Those are pretty simple
compared to full chemo. One hour, start to finish.

As long as radiation will knock out the rest of the cancer,
things look pretty good.

You lovely folks who keep visiting here and offering good
thoughts, prayers and encouragement are very, very much
appreciated. I send big virtual thank-you hugs out to all of you.