Recovery

I came home last night to an immaculate house. Mr. H missed me and worked his butt off this week to make things perfect for me. He bought a hammock stand for the hammock we got over Christmas and put it together. He hung up a rack we got from I.kea for our laundry room. He vacuumed three times, dusted, mopped, gave Autumn a bath, washed the sheets, did several loads of laundry, mowed the lawn and detailed my car inside and out. Everything is spotless and it makes me so happy to know that he did it all for me. Thank you honey so very much. On top of all that, he bought me a laptop! Am I spoiled or what? I asked for one for Christmas, but didn't get one. I figured we'd get one in the future, so I was absolutely surprised to come home to one. I love it- and I'm typing on it right now!

My grandma's surgery went well- kind of. She actually had to have two surgeries. She went in on Tuesday morning and had the mastectomy. Everything went well and she was out of surgery by 10:30 am. She went to recovery and then to her room. She opted to do reconstruction on her breast. This means that they had to completely remove her breast, nipple, and a few lymph nodes. This turned out to be a blessing because the pathology report stated that there was another cluster of cancerous cells in her breast that they missed. Had they done another lumpectomy, she would still have cancer. I am pleased to announce that she is cancer free!!!!! Back to the reconstruction, after they removed this breast tissue, they had to scrape the muscle off her ribs. Then they placed an expander under the muscle. The expander will be filled with fluid every two weeks until the breast is the desired size. This process could take up to a year. It will slowly stretch out the skin so the expander can be removed and the implant can be placed. They will then reconstruct the remaining breast so it matches the new one. I asked if she would have a nipple and they said that they would gather the excess skin to form a nipple, then they would tattoo on an areola to match the other. How cool is that? My grandma is going to have a tattoo! That's bad ass!

They placed a drainage tube under the muscle to drain any excess blood and fluids. She was filling up her "grenade" (a plastic holding container that holds approximately 4 oz.) every hour. The doctor was concerned with the amount of fluid that was draining out of her. She examined her at about 5pm and noticed that her chest was swollen and was bleeding internally. They took her back into surgery at about 9:30pm and she didn't come out of recovery until about 1:30am Wednesday morning. They didn't find what was causing her to bleed, but they removed the excess blood and stitched her back up. She stayed in the hospital until Friday at noon. She's now filling up her grenade about one and a half times a day, which is great. The amount of fluid will decrease daily until the tube is removed after 10 days. She's okay physically, as she is on pain killers and muscle relaxants every 4-6 hours, but emotionally she is a mess. She is distraught over her appearance and cries every time she is awake. The medication has her sleeping about 16 hours a day, and when she wakes up, she's just sad. I so wish I could take away her pain and sadness. I know one day she will be okay, but it will take time, and even then she will never be the same. It's times like this, I wish I could speed up the clock.

I'm glad I'm home, but I wish I could still be with her to take care and comfort her. Thanks everyone for all your support and well wishes. My grandma and I appreciate them more than you know.