Hello from the flip side!

Well...I finally have a little bit of strength and clarity to send my own update! I see that Andre has done an amazing job of keeping you all informed and with his own flare. As you can imagine he has been amazing and words cannot express my gratitude. BUT..I’ve got the rest of my life to say thank you and he's not quiet done taking care of me just yet! As much as I wish this part of the journey were over I've still got a lot of recovery ahead. 

Right now my main focus is staying ahead of the pain so to speak. Everyone that knows me knows I have a high threshold for pain but with that comes a high tolerance for pain medicine.  Not sure why they would think if I needed iv Diladid between my Percocet pills in the hospital that just Percocet alone would work when they sent me home. Well…it’s all they gave me so all I can do is suck it up and deal with it! We figured out it was best to wake me up every four hours to take my pain meds instead of letting me sleep through it. I am happy to say last night I was able to sleep through it! Woke up in a lot of pain but I did get about 6 hours of solid sleep! Hopefully I’m finally “ahead of the pain” now and it will just get better from here.

Once again cancer just seems to be one waiting game after another. First biopsy results, then schedule surgery, now waiting for the pathology from the tumor and lymph nodes. It turns out some of my lymph nodes were actually bigger then my tumor. Not sure if that’s bad or good yet! I’m hoping it just means they were doing their job and fighting the cancer from spreading.  My surgeon asked me to check in on Monday to see if my path results were back but he figured it would probably be Tuesday or so before they had everything. Once they are back I will schedule a meeting with him and we will finally really know what the next step will be. Regardless radiation will still be on the table.

So for now we wait…and I heal! The portable air conditioner arrived yesterday! It really is a godsend! No central air during this heat wave was no bueno! Plus Andre was able to get a little aggression out by breaking the window to put the hose through. We are not officially ghetto…cardboard and masking tape and all!  Hey.. it works!!

I am slowly getting back on line and will try and respond to everyone. The love and prayers have been overwhelming and we really appreciate it.  The flowers are all holding up nicely and have brightened up the apartment! I even had enough strength to play a little Cards Again Humanity with Stephanie and Andre last night. Gotta love a man with the same sick sense of humor as me…below is Andre’s answer to one

Well, I promise to try and keep everyone updated. I’m still really weak and making it from the couch to the bathroom is a choir but everyday does get better. All I really want now is a  blowout and a proper shower! Hopefully in the next few days! However, Andre doesn’t seem to be complaining about having to give me a sponge bath.  Ha, I can’t even brush my own hair so I’ll take it! So for now i will sit back and enjoy this beautiful salad Andre just prepared for me...chicken and all!