The knife went bump and out went the lump

I am currently without lump.... and a few lymph nodes. Yay!

I'm home now from the lumpectomy and lymph node dissection and I feel pretty good. As hubby updated yesterday, everything went as planned and Dr. Johs feels confident about the surgery. He ended up taking out about 13 lymph nodes and we'll have results on the margins on Thursday.

I checked into Avista yesterday morning around 8:30 and even though I love, love Dr. Johs, I can't say I'm too impressed with the facility and support staff. Right when we got there the front desk ladies lost our paperwork and everything got pushed behind. Lucky for me hubby was there to follow up on this kinda stuff as I probably would still be sitting in the waiting room wondering why they haven't called my name. 

Finally after I signed my life away on all the paperwork, I was called back to the Radiology Department for ultrasound imaging and wire localization of the lump - they stuck a wire in my boob! The procedure wasn't too bad, the crusty, but competent radiologist numbed the area and then used a long needle to stick the wire in.  His assistant, on the other hand, was nice but totally spacey. She kept losing things and forgetting what she was doing. She left the door open while "the girls" were hanging out, then she stuck a cup - yes, a cup - on the wire prior to sending me to the Mammography department. (So far Avista wasn't impressing me, and this was only the beginning.)

The girl in Mammography seemed more put together, but kept calling me sweetie and honey and darlin' - even though she was younger than me! Anyway, she took two images of the lumpy boob to insure the wire was properly placed. She then insisted upon me sitting in a wheelchair to be taken to pre-op, where I met hubby.

In pre-op I was pummeled with questions by the overworked, grumpy nursing staff. The questions weren't so bad, it was the tension in the room that bothered me, at one point I thought we were going to see a cat fight between two of the nurses. Then, a strange looking, tall, scary man entered my room and I was certain I was in the Twilight Zone. Come to find out, he was the anethesiologist and he needed me to sign my life away before sedating me.

I remember rolling to the operating room, I remember seeing the big lights and that's about it. I woke up several hours later in recovery. That was not pleasant. I was nauseous and extremely tired. It took a while to pull out of it, which is why we decided I should spend the night.

After recovery, I went to my hospital room-  which was more tired looking than me. The teals, pale pinks and brown jumped from every surface and the mattress was about as old as I am. But, I settled in. Nurses hooked me up this way and that. I had wires hooked to my legs, my nose and my arms. It took a good 15 minutes to get unhooked so I could use the bathroom.

It was a long night. More bad, tired, overworked, spacey nurses paraded in and out of my room and my bed was so lumpy I might as well have slept on a bale of hay. By this morning, I was done. However, I did get the chance to watch some I Dream of Jeanie and Bewitched while sipping on hospital coffee (is bad coffee better than no coffee? I'm not sure.) I was able to check out at about 11:30 this morning. My conclusion: 27 hours at Avista is 27 hours too many.

BUT, I'm home now and feeling relatively good. I'm in my own non-lumpy bed with a great support staff of one loving hubby and two scrumptious boys. AND, I'm 2/3 of the way through this mess. I'm so happy to be through the roughest parts of cancer treatment.

SHOUT OUT: A big ol' thank you to Linda, Rachel, Dallas & Charlotte and Kimberly & the Peak to Peak Counseling Staff. LOVE you guys!