Monday, May 19, 2014

Day 3 Post-Op

After 8 hours of deep sleep, I woke to a phone call from the nurse at 8:15 am. 

That gave me a chance to ask my questions about the surgical vest.  The answers were:

  • Continue to wear it 24/7 until your post-op check-up.
  • No reason for it to have been put on inside out (must have been a mistake).


I stayed in bed another hour, just wanting to sleep more, but finally got up and had an active morning walking around the block with the dogs and watering all my flowers and newly transplanted vegetables.

The underarm incision still hurts, but ice packs help.  

I drove Roz to Starbucks at 1 pm and then went back to bed, exhausted.

At 4 pm I visited my neighbor Lani, who is a veteran of stage 1 breast cancer that occupied most of 2008 for her.  What a pleasure to compare notes with her and vent on all the little irritations of what was actually a very successful surgery!

She told me about the next step: radiation.  You're really tired and you need to start putting Aveeno cream on the area two weeks ahead so your skin won't dry out too much.  

Back to bed 7-8:30 pm... at this rate, I won't be driving to Colorado on Thursday.

My big question: am I a survivor yet?  When do I get the official designation: Breast Cancer Survivor?

Is it after surgery?  After radiation?  

I want a badge to wear, but maybe I haven't earned it yet.



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