2 Weeks Post-Mastectomy

Well, it's been a couple of weeks now.  I'm still feeling pretty good, but sitting around doing nothing was getting pretty old.  THANK GOODNESS  I was able to get the last 2 drains removed on Tuesday.  That was pretty freeing, as those things were a nuisance.  I had to keep them in my little pockets in my camisoles, and when I took baths, I had to wear them on a lanyard around my neck.  Such a pain.  And during our meeting w/ the plastic surgeon (Dr. Scott) on Friday, he told me I was ok to start moving my arms a little more.  It's hard to know how much or how little to do on my own.  I don't have much of a reach, especially w/ my left arm (the side the lymph nodes were removed from), but it's definitely getting better. He told me that I'm healing up perfectly and there is very little chance of infection or any complications now that we're 2 weeks out.  Hoorah.  I made it through the critical period, I guess!

Dr Scott filled my expanders a little bit yesterday, too.  It was pretty amazing, especially because I felt no pain at all.  He used some sort of magnet doo-hicky to find the port under my skin.  Then he drew a little circle and inserted a needle (Trev said it was about an inch long) attached to a HUGE syringe that held the fluid.  I'm assuming it was saline.  I couldn't feel the prick of the needle or any pain during the expansion, but I could feel the skin getting stretched tighter.  Then he did the other side.  It's funny because he'd count down to the needle poke, and apologize for poking me. Next time, I'll have to scream or something.  :)

Well, in my last post I talked about the pathology report and how great it was that they only found a 2 cm tumor.  I actually had misunderstood Dr. Soriano's explanation over the phone.  I learned during our appointment on Tuesday that no, they did not find a 2 cm tumor.  What they found were a few rogue cancer cells within a 2 cm area.  MUCH better news, if you ask me!  I was wondering how they found a 2 cm tumor, when the MRI a couple weeks prior turned up no visible cancer at all.  So, we are just overjoyed that the chemo worked so well.

Every single choice we've made pertaining to my cancer treatment so far has ended up having such positive results.  It gives us confidence moving forward that Heavenly Father is directing us as we travel down this road.  We felt strongly that SCCA is where I need to go for my radiation oncology, rather then do it in Everett.  Today I kind of second guessed it to Trevor (thinking of the distance and the hassle of having to go in to Seattle every day for 6+ weeks, paying for parking...), but he reminded me that so far our decisions have been spot on, and we need to trust in the good feelings we had about SCCA.

So I'll sign off for now, but not before attaching a few more family photos from back in September.  We got the CD a while ago, and I'm pretty sure I haven't posted these particular pics here on the blog yet.  I'm just lucky I have such cute kids, I'm sure you're not sick of seeing them. :