Me Vs Alien Invaders

It’s over.

Phew.

And like chemo, it isn’t as bad as I thought it would be!

Because my doctor made me get my PET scan the day before, and I thought it was scheduled for Monday, I fasted Sunday for the PET scan I didn’t have. I fasted Monday for the PET scan I did have, and I fasted Tuesday for my surgery. By Wednesday morning, I was HUNGRY! And like my husband, being hungry definitely makes me not such a fun person to be around.

My mom flew in at 11 am from Hawaii nei, but the plane was a little late, she had to wait for luggage, get a rental car, and drive 40 miles to Allen Presby (the hospital). I almost didn’t see her before surgery, and they had already juiced me up with some stuff to put me in a happy place when she flew into my hospital room, gave me a hug, and I was wheeled off.

Apparently, before I left with the anesthesiologist, we were making small talk and I said that the drugs were putting me in a great mood! Dr. Sanchez, the anesthesiologist said something about the drugs being like a margarita mix.

While he was saying that, I slipped into my “Dumb and Dumber” mental state, and I demanded to know how much liver damage the margarita mix was going to cause. My mother said that no one in the room had any idea what I was talking about; until someone made the connection that I thought that the anesthesia was real margarita mix. And that was my cue to be wheeled off-stage to the OR.

Now I was out (obviously), but things took a lot longer than they were supposed to (5 hours rather than 3), so Luis and Mom were pacing and anxious. The chemo had made everything that my breast surgeon wanted to take out clump and get sticky to the stuff she wanted to leave in. I also had the lymph nodes above my collar bone removed to be checked out, which added some time as well. However, I didn’t loose a lot of blood, she took good margins as far as she knows, and hopefully the path and PET scan come out very positively.

So as soon as I came to with the nurses in recovery, I vomited all over the place. Operating rooms need to be kept cold, and along with the effects of the anesthesia I was shaking pretty bad, and tensing up after surgery is not a good thing, so the demerol they gave me stopped the shakes but I emptied whatever was in my tummy.

And I continued to empty my tummy for the rest of the night, which SUCKED, because nothing makes your throat sorer than non-stop barfing coupled with intubation during surgery. Mom slept at the hospital with me because Luis had to teach yesterday, and I continue to swear there is nothing better than your mom when you are sick.

Honestly, the vomiting is worse than the pain from the surgery, which feels like I was attacked by about 20 wasps that stung the crap out of my boob and my armpit. They are very liberal with the pain meds, and make sure I always have my morphine pump at my disposal.

So the nurses finally gave me some anti-nausea meds, and yesterday at 3pm I was able to keep down a cup of chicken noodle soup. I was very proud of myself. Because my mom had flown in on the red eye and was up with me being sick the night after, she took off during the day to crash out at my place in Dallas. Luis had classes yesterday (and his students baked me chocolate chip cookies!!!!), so his closest comrade, Alberto kept my company during the day, and we just laughed and made fun of everything and took naps.

Luis came back that afternoon, brought me Thai food, and we tried to watch two HORRIBLE movies. The first was Australia. It was so weird, because it is set up like this big epic classic, and then is actually like a slapstick melodramatic badly written comedy.

So we turned that off and inserted 7 Pounds, and after two hours we still had NO CLUE what was going on.

I love the show House, and my critical thinking skills honed by watching that medical mystery show were actually put to use by myself in a hospital! I am so proud of myself and my medical sleuthing abilities!

I realized that every time the nurses had been taking my temperature, which always read normal, I had been munching on ice chips! Yes! Ice chips!

Using my powers of deduction, dear Watson, I realized that I had a fever because the ice was actually lowering my temperature to a false normal! I had to beg the nurses to retake my temperature with an ice cube free mouth, and low and behold: fever. I should seriously have my own TV show.

Not sure if I will be out of here tonight or not, depends on how serious the infection (or whatever I have) is, but if that means I get to keep my morphine pump a little longer, that is fine with me!

I have been receiving HUNDREDS of amazing and lovely notes from people. Thank you all so much for your kind support and wishes of aloha. I nap a lot during the day, but my cell phone works if you want to call (although my morphine conversations are a bit slow and I get confused easily) and I will be on email later on. I love you all so much, and I wish that I could be closer to you all.