Surgery recap

Hi blog readers!

Today as I write, a cold rain is falling all over the state, flooding many areas.  Many friends of mine are in Clemson getting ready to watch them play (hopefully beat) Notre Dame.  My hubby is at a friends house watching the many football games on TV today.  My kiddos are spending the day with my parents.  And as for me…..I’ve got the house ALL to myself!  This is a rare treat, as I can play praise music as loud as I want! 🙂 Thanks to some generous friends who gave me iTunes gift cards, I just downloaded 2 new albums.  (in case you were wondering – Christy Nockles “Let it Be Jesus”, and Passion’s “Even so Come”…both I highly recommend).   I’m enjoying this time reading, journalling, and actually writing a LONG overdue blog post.

When I log on to write a blog post, I often have this temptation to go back to the last post and try to recap everything that has happened since I last wrote.  Often that overwhelms me since I don’t write very frequently and because there is so much going on in my life and my heart.  Instead of treating this blog as a chronological history of this cancer journey, I view it more as a photo-book with snapshots from the journey.

So here’s my surgery snapshot 🙂

Last Thursday, October 1, I had surgery: a lumpectomy/partial mastectomy and sentinel node biopsy.  Yes, that’s a mouthful.  Everything went well and although I’m still in pain, it is not unbearable and mostly under control with pain meds  (which make me a little loopy and sleepy). So if this blog post does not make much sense you will know why 🙂

I do want to rewind and share about the bumpy week I had leading up to surgery, and how the surgery almost wasn’t.

Monday I got a call from the school nurse that Samuel had a fever at school. I took him to the doctor and he was diagnosed with strep throat.  Immediately I started praying (and others prayed) that I wouldn’t catch it because I knew I couldn’t get sick going into surgery.  Monday was just a crazy day all together…one of those days where it felt like everything was going wrong.  From sickness, to traffic, to computers and copy machines acting crazy.  I was preparing for a time of discipleship with my precious high school girls that was scheduled for Monday night, and God had laid something heavy on my heart to do with them in God’s Word, and I could just see the enemy trying to thwart God’s plans! But praise GOD – the discipleship meeting happened and was a sweet sweet time of growth… and GOD Prevailed and His Word went out.  I crashed late Monday night, heart full, and feeling great…still praying against the sickness spreading.

Tuesday afternoon in a very short timeframe I went from feeling well to feeling awful.  My throat started hurting terribly and I felt feverish.  Justin had to completely take care of the children Tuesday night – I felt terrible and started getting nervous about whether the surgery was going to happen. I called Dr. Tucker’s office (the surgeon), and the nurse said Dr. Tucker wanted to give it overnight and instructed me to call back Wednesday morning if I still felt poorly.   I rested, and prayed that I felt better Wednesday morning.

Wednesday I was scheduled to be at the hospital all afternoon for pre-op procedures and appointments.  I didn’t want to go through those procedures/appointments if the surgery had to be postponed. By Wednesday morning, my throat was hurting worse than ever.  Dr. Tucker got on the phone herself with me and assured me that we could go forward with the surgery if I was open to it.  At that time I didn’t have a fever so I decided to move forward with it. I really did not want to postpone the surgery.  I was thankful.

So I headed over to Lexington Medical Center for the appointments and as the day went on, I felt worse and worse.  By the end of the day, I could hardly sit up in the waiting room and was just about to ask a nurse to find me a room to lie down in and wait.  I asked the nurse to take my temp and it was 100.1, which honestly was lower than I expected.  The nurse called Dr. Tucker’s office once more to give her a heads up.  I finally finished and was so ready to drive straight home and crawl in bed.  My throat felt like I’d swallowed knives, and I could tell my fever was getting worse.

By the time i got home, my fever was up to 102.4.  I took some Tylenol and went straight to bed.  That night Dr. Tucker personally called me from her cell phone to check on me.  I thought that was so sweet.  By that time my fever had reduced, and although my throat was still very sore we both felt ok with moving forward with surgery the next morning.  After the back and forth all day in my mind, praying for wisdom about what to do and wondering what was going to happen, I was so thankful to go to bed and know that surgery would happen the next day.

I felt so well cared for on the day of surgery.  The doctors and nurses were so attentive and caring.  Pastor Ropp came and prayed with me.  Justin was right by my side in pre-op and recovery.  My parents took great care of the children.  And I had so many family and friends praying for me, texting words of encouragement and well wishes.  I don’t think it was any coincidence that my surgery was on the first day of October: breast cancer awareness month.  (it’s also my sister’s birthday month) 🙂  The month of October will forever be changed for me, and I will never look at a pink ribbon the same again.   

Within a week we will know the pathology results, and I’m boldly praying that there is NO CANCER in the breast tissue or lymph nodes they removed!

Overall, this week has had its ups and downs -but I’m SO thankful that the surgery is behind me.  Next step: radiation!  ….. to start early to mid November.  I will have 7 weeks of radiation, each weekday  (35 sessions).  Around the beginning of 2016 I should be finished with all of my treatments! (Except the herceptin infusion I will continue to get every 3 weeks till April).  I can’t believe how far God has brought me.

Thank you for your continued prayers and love!

Psalm 62:5-8 (Message)

God, the one and only—
    I’ll wait as long as he says.
Everything I hope for comes from him,
    so why not?
He’s solid rock under my feet,
    breathing room for my soul,
An impregnable castle:
    I’m set for life.

 My help and glory are in God
    —granite-strength and safe-harbor-God—
So trust him absolutely, people;
    lay your lives on the line for him.
    God is a safe place to be.

His Grace Abounds,

Brooke