Home and Better-than-Fine

This post will be short... I'm kinda tired still.

I have broken the surly bonds of the hospital surgical ward and have returned home to a haven of flowers, delivered meals and thoughtful gifts.

Surgery went well, or so they tell me, I slept through it all.

We arrived at Kaiser Santa Clara at 6am on Monday 6/17, checked into surgery and then hung out for hours until I was taken to the OR at 12:30pm.

"Hung Out" is official terminology for: 

• getting hooked up to IV fluids;
• having vitals checked and monitored;
• receiving two shots of nuclear isotopes to the left breast;
• maneuvering the halls for an embarrassing number of trips to the bathroom;
• watching movies, reading magazines and chatting with an attentive and very nervous spouse.

All this done in a bleached out hospital gown and funny-looking, XL, no-slip socks. 

Surgery was an eventful 2 1/2 hour affair with the removal of not only my left breast but also the excision of my left side sentinel node and one axilliary node. My doctor was highly impressed with the radiological (yep, made up that word I think!) presentation of the node if not pleased by its small size.

"Oh my gosh, that teeny thing was hot, hot, hot! It was so teeny though I didn't want to chance chopping it up and missing something so I sent it, and an axilliary node straight to pathology."

Basically what that means is there was no initial assessment done in the OR for cancer cells so we will wait another week to hear that the nodes were clean and I'm off-the-hook for radiation and chemo. I'm not worried, I'm positive it is cancer-free.

There is more to share about my longer-than-anticipated hospital stay but that can wait. Suffice it to say that I'm home, I'm happy and I'm well-fed. 

In other words, I'm better-than-fine.