Saturday Update

I figured it was time for an update on my current health. I'm still recovering from the surgery, and that's proving to be a little more challenging now than it was initially.

I'm over a week past surgery and the last couple of days have been pretty rough on me. Perhaps it's because I quit taking Vicodin during the day and am relying on Motrin only. At night, I still take Vicodin to make sure I sleep well. It kind of works, I guess.

The last couple of days, I keep waking up a little nauseous. I'm not sure what that's about. Maybe it's just low blood sugar (my appetite isn't all that big right now). I do keep wondering if it's a result of my nighttime Vicodin use, but I usually eat a little something before I take it. And I'm taking less now than I have been since I've come home from the hospital, so it seems like it's not a likely candidate for causing the queasiness.

Another thing I've been experiencing the last couple of days is a decreased range in motion. The first few days after coming home, I found that I was able to increase the range of motion in my arms a little each day. But a couple of days ago, it started getting worse again... particularly on the right side. (The left side is where they took out lymph nodes, and the right side has an implant expander.) When I try to move too much, I feel pain in my arm pit and around the location where the drainage cup tubes exit my side.

Today, I've also felt very cold all day. Actually, now that I think about it, that started last night. When I was getting ready for bed (okay, technically "bed" is the same recliner where I spend my entire day), it seemed like I couldn't get warm enough. I've also noticed today that prickly skin sensation that you get when you're getting sick. I'm not enjoying this and am hoping that when I get my cups out on Tuesday that it will solve a lot of these problems.

This morning when I woke up, I noticed that some of the fluid in my #2 cup (which sits behind a muscle on the right side) was actually leaking fluid down the outside of the tubes. That kind of freaked me out a bit, but after my shower, it seemed to stop. And, the bulb that collects the fluid was still collapsed (which is the position in which it needs to stay in order to keep the suction working), so that means that the drain is still working. I'm not really sure what happened there... I probably yanked it out of where ever it was resting inside, and now it's settled back into a good resting place. That may even be why I feel more sore than I did a few days ago.

One more thing. I got my pathology report back on Thursday. And even though they couldn't find a sentinal node when they did the mastectomy, five of the nodes they did take still showed metastasis. That basically means that the cancer had moved into my lymph nodes. Not a big surprise with this form of cancer, but it was still disappointing to hear. I won't know how much the cancer had grown there and how it will affect my ongoing recovery until I meet with my oncologist again on August 31. That news brought me down a bit, but it's not necessarily terrible news. I don't even know if the cancer cells they found there were active or had already been killed by the chemo. So, we're back to one day at a time. :)

In the meantime, if you've sent me an email and I haven't responded, please don't take it personally. I occasionally get online to check my emails, but I usually don't have it in me to respond right away. When I do have the energy, I try to respond to one or two emails and update my blog at the same time. But, I can't stay online very long because the discomfort I feel under my right arm actually affects how long I can type. After a while, the effort of holding my arm in a position to enable typing becomes too much. But, don't worry, I keep trying to respond to everyone a little bit at a time.

In the meantime, I just want to say thanks to all of you that have sent me warm wishes and prayers. It has meant the world to me to know that I have all this tremendous support out there.