Tick, Tock

So we are getting closer and closer to the big, horrible day. Now less than a week away. Sigh. I've done a pretty good job of not thinking about it much for the past month, but as the date draws nearer, it is definitely getting harder and harder to ignore. The proverbial elephant in room. Although in this case, there are two elephants. Ugh.

I'm trying to pretend my sister is coming for a "visit," rather than coming for my surgery. I'm also trying to pretend that all the little things I need to do before her "visit" don't pertain to the fact that I will be out of commission for approximately two weeks after the surgery (no, I really LOVE cleaning out my car, really). I went in Monday for my scheduled pre-op screening. No biggie, just more of the same "blah, blah, blah" as the last two times I've had surgery.

For those of you who haven't heard the plan, here's some info. I'll go in for surgery sometime in the morning of April 21, next Wednesday. I don't have an exact time until I call on Tuesday, April 20. They have cancellations etc. so they won't actually schedule my time until the day before. Cindy is coming in on Tuesday the 20th and will stay with us until Sunday. She will provide back-up for David and help with the kids. Yuma knows what is going on, but I didn't give him many details. When I told him what they were going to do in the surgery he said, "Are you serious?" and looked like he couldn't believe they would do something so barbaric. Believe me kid, I can't believe it either, but that's where we are today.

The surgery is scheduled to last anywhere from 4-6 hours, that is the bilateral mastectomy and the placement of the tissue expanders. If all goes well, I will leave the OR with the tissue expanders in place. If my skin won't tolerate it, or if there isn't enough skin to proceed, I will have to wait and get the expanders later in a separate surgery. That would suck, by the way. I will roll into recovery and stay there until they deem it ok for me to be admitted. I'll then go up to my room, stay the night, get pain meds, and be discharged by 9:00 am the next morning. I'll go home with 4 drains to maintain. Yesch. I've requested a nurse from home health to come in to help with the drains, so that should make it some what easier.

I'll be out of commission for about 2 weeks. Not a lot of movement, no lifting, no reaching overhead, no driving etc. Everyone is different with recovery so who knows if it will be 2 weeks, 3 weeks, less than 2 weeks, whatever. We have to see.

Mentally, I'm pretty up and down. Trying to do yoga, stay busy, do art, whatever to take my mind off of it. I'm going to ask David or Cindy to post a note here once I'm out of surgery so everyone knows that I'm done and how things went. Thanks for all your support. You continue to amaze me with your love and support. Send me some good surgery energy for next week. Until later...