One Step At A Time

Though still stiff and sore following the surgery, I am doing a lot better. I am minus two breasts, ten lymph nodes (five from each side), and one three to four centimeter cancerous tumour. Due to the size of the thing I may still end up having to go through chemo but will not know absolutely for certain for several more days when I will be seeing the medical oncologist. I will also be having further surgery to remove ovaries and fallopian tubes as they are also falling victim to the same causes for the breast cancer. To say my life has not been much fun lately is understating things a bit, but there are some small compensations along the way such as friends calling to say a special "Hello," get well cards arriving at odd intervals, and my sweetie pie doing his utmost to help me out despite the total lack of fun in his own life at the moment ( a lot of that because of what's happening with me).

I am glad this happened with the advent of Spring instead of the grey of Winter. There is no ice to deal with when walking back and forth to the car and the flowers and trees blooming all over the place, as well as the bright return of the gold finches and other seasonal residents, has afforded me many enjoyable moments while traveling between home and hospital. Our families also seem to be in a state of reasonably good health and calm emotions for the interim which allows the two of us to concentrate upon dealing with the issues at hand.

"She-Who-Declines-To-Be-Named" has returned home with our niece after traveling many hours, and arduous journey across deserts and timelines, to be with me during the worst of this ordeal, and is hoping to return later on when the next surgery is closer at hand to spend some more time with me and with our niece. Our niece is usually quite happy to have her other auntie visit because, as she recently informed me, I am absolutely the "most boring" of all of her aunties. At least I will be remembered for something.

My activities are still limited because of waiting for the removal of surgical drains which have pretty much been grossing me out from the get go. Seeing the last of those will not cause me any regrets whatsoever although it will likely be quite awhile before I will be able to face a rare steak for dinner, especially a really juicy one.

I still find I am easily tired by not a lot of activity and that holding the telephone uses more chest muscles than one might expect. So I am napping often, sometimes due to the physical stresses but still once in a while due to the emotional stresses, but not as often as I was immediately following my surgery.

So much for that update. I wish I had more of interest to report but, as I am hoping to somehow provide some smattering of potentially useful information for others who may find themselves in similar circumstances, I plod on.

My brother called earlier today. He sounded weary, but cheerful. I think the loss of our younger sister and then my illness on top of that have taken more of a toll on him than we may realize. I only hope, not only for my sake but also for the sake of my family, that my recovery is full and uneventful. I really do not want to find out how much more we can take before we finally crumble into dust and blow away our tears all spent.

I.