Jenny can write more about this surgery in the future if she chooses, but it is certainly worth an update that Jenny had another surgery related to her ongoing recovery/maintenance.
She feels good and is in the best shape of her, life. This surgery was ‘elective,’ but only in its timing. It was necessary at some point and probably could have been done years ago.
But today was the day. It’s done, and she is home.
She goes back in December for the second half of this work.
I got my drain pulled out today.
Boy, how I’ll miss it.
I’ll miss the stabbing feeling I would get when my shirt tugged on the tubing that was stitched into my side.
It was a long day, but we will take long days like this when they turn out to be so good!
First up, our appointment with Dr. Moulder, the oncologist. She gave us the chemo plan which consists of 12 rounds of Taxol once a week, followed by four rounds of Adriamycin/Cytoxan/5-FU once every three weeks. Total treatment: 6 months.
We’re home. But it wasn’t as simple as planned.
We planned on leaving Houston at about 8:30 a.m. Wednesday and being home by late afternoon. But as we fought the morning rush-hour traffic near the Houston Medical District to the Interstate, Jenny was speaking to the triage nurse at the MD Anderson breast center.
Jenny wasn’t happy last night. She didn’t get to eat, but later admitted that the restricted diet was smart. When she received more pain medication at about midnight, she had another wave of nausea. At that point, she was happy that she only had chicken broth and jello to eat for dinner.
Since midnight, though, Jenny has been progressing very well. By 6 a.m. this morning, she was up and around in her room and getting dressed. She ate breakfast after the visit from a doctor this morning. Dr. Gainer’s fellow allowed a change to the diet restriction. But under the advice of the nurse, Jenny took it easy and ate cereal and fruit. There was no breakfast taco, as I promised yesterday.
Here’s another surgery-day timeline report. We took a vote and it was unanimous — no more surgeries, please!
So we fully expect this to be the last post that chronicles a day for cancer surgery.
Before you begin, I will offer this quick spoiler: It went very well.