Went to the hospital on Tuesay, the 28th; they ran me through various things, including a bunch of tests and injections, took me into the operating room and knocked me out. When I woke up I was in a room on the 6th floor with lots of nice nurses. I was still pretty dopey from the anesthesia, and they gave me stuff whenever I was in pain. When I woke up enough to eat they found odds'n'ends for me, since it was about 9 PM. Half an egg-salad sandwich, peanut butter toast, chicken-noodle soup. Heavenly.
Woke up Weds AM, ate a boring breakfast. See Dr. Johnson, who tells me everything went great, and that the preliminary results on the sentinel nodes are negative. That means the cancer hasn't spread, which is great--although we won't have the final results until Friday. I have a small fever, so they make me walk laps around the 6th floor for 20 minutes. More boredom, but the fever is down.
Then they started working on how to get me out of there. New policy at Good Sam--they want to get people out by 11. I had to have a special scan before I left. Plan A was to send me to the Radiation Oncology Dept for the scan, and discharge me from there. They pack me up and send me and my stuff off in a wheelchair for the scan. At the RO Dept they do the scan, which is to make sure that the balloon they'll be using for the radiation is in the right place--it has to be far enough away from the chest wall and the outer skin. The scan is fine (yay) and then they put this special dressing on my left breast--and give me a tube top! Seriously, they have this super-stretchy puckered cloth, just like they use for tube tops, and they wrap it around me, securing it with velcro. It's a lovely lilac shade. Then they clip two straps on so it's a tube top with straps! The fabric is pretty tight, and holds the dressing in place. It also prevents my boobs from moving very much, which is a good thing, since my left one is pretty damned sore.
They're ready to send me home, but my friend Shannon isn't available yet to pick me up. They're going to wheel me back to the 6th floor, but need to do some paperwork. The nurse tells Lee (the guy who's pushing me around in the wheelchair) to go get a cup of coffee. Joking, I say "And one for me too!" Lee comes back with a cup for me and I almost start crying (it's the drugs, it's the drugs). We drink coffee and talk about kind people. He knew Dr. Foster too, and agrees with all of us who know him about what a great man he is.
Finally they wheel me back to the 6th floor, where I hang out and read until Shannon gets out of her meeting and takes me home. It's really good to see my cat and sit on my own couch. Shannon brings me some homemade chicken soup that is totally delish. She makes the stock with some veggies, but then uses fresh ones to make the soup--so the veggies are really crisp and fresh-tasting. Also, the potatoes in it are super yummy. I devour half of it along with a big chunk of bread from Grand Central and some home-made chocolate chip cookies (also delish). Then I go to sleep on the couch with the cat. That last sentence pretty much describes the rest of Wednesday and Thursday. Thursday also includes a walk to Freddy's to drop off prescriptions and get in the 20 minutes of walking the docs want.
Friday is balloon day--get the temporary one out, the "real" one in, and get my first two radiation treatments. Also the final results from pathology . . .
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