Dan and I are up and enjoying a really good cup of coffee on this clear and cold Sunday morning. My recovery is going smoothly. It's now two days post-op, and I feel better today than I did yesterday, so we're heading in the right direction. I may even try to wean off the narcotic pain meds today and see if extra strength Tylenol can do the trick. (Yes, I have an ulterior motive - no alcohol while on narcotics, and I just might need a glass of Chardonnay tonight :)
So, we play the waiting game today and tomorrow until the phone rings. Dr. Boughey will call as soon as she receives the final pathology report. We did speak with Dr. Boughey while I was in the recovery room just after surgery, so we gathered a little bit more information on Friday.
Unfortunately, the best case scenario has been ruled out. The hope was that no more atypical cells would be present in the lumpectomy area, and that would be the extent of the treatment needed. That's not the case.
They do some preliminary pathology right there in the operating room, and Dr. Boughey explained that those results showed more atypia was present in the area. Now pathology is doing their extended testing on the tissue, and those are the results that we receive tomorrow. In simple terms, tomorrow we will hear that this is "almost cancer" but hasn't quite reached that stage, or we will hear that this is DCIS, early stage breast cancer. Either way, there will be some treatment necessary, but there are still a lot of unknowns for us at this point. So we wait.
We will try to occupy our minds today by watching the last regular season NFL games. If the Vikings can beat the Packers, they get into the playoffs. That makes me think of Shannon and how amped up she'd be for today's game. She loved watching the Vikes, and she loved hating the Packers!
A year ago today, a hospital bed was delivered to our home. Shannon was hanging on longer than we anticipated, and it became difficult to keep her comfortable on our regular furniture. So, we had to do something we didn't want to do, and put her in a hospital bed. As much as she never wanted to be in a hospital bed, it was absolutely the right decision and it allowed us to keep her comfortable during the final week of her life.
Despite everything else going on for us right now, we are still reminiscing about where we were at a year ago. There are so many little moments in time from those last days of Shannon's life that will stay with us forever. Late nights spent holding her hand and talking to her so she knew we were there, and so she knew it was ok to let go.
The best part of today will come this evening - my friend Teri is driving 9 hours from her home in Michigan to spend a couple of days with me. I haven't seen her since January 10th. We said goodbye the night of Shannon's funeral, and we just haven't managed to see each other since then. Her arrival will be a real day brightener. Girlfriends make the world a better place...
