Part III: Early convalescence

Prior to discharge from the hospital, my instructions were: no lifting my arms more than 90 degrees, no lifting more than 5lbs (half gallon of milk is okay but a full gallon is not) and no putting my weight on my hands getting in and out of bed (try that one out - it's harder than it sounds!). And, most exciting of all, they showed me how to how to empty my J/P drains. I went home with three drains and unfortunately, at the time of typing this, I still have all three.  More on this later.

For the first few days, lounging in my carefully structured tower of pillows, including back and knee wedge pillows (again, thank you Amazon Prime!), the routine was:

1. Take Percocet (aka oxycodone and tylenol), Keflex (antibiotic), and Colace (we don't need to talk about that one any more)
2. Empty J/P drains and measure the fluid, note measurements on a log
3. Take a nap
4. Repeat
5. At bedtime, repeat step 1, but add Valium (eventually added Benadryl and dropped Keflex due to itchiness!)

Those days are already a blur to me, while packages were arriving at the door with food in dry ice and my favorite cookies from Levain Bakery in NYC arrived. My dad and his wife (staying at a nearby Airbnb since our house is TINY) were helping with the drop-off and pick-up of my kids from school and bringing water or snacks in response to a bell that they provided for my nightstand.  After we sent them home a week later, my mother-in-law stepped in, dropping off and picking up the kids, cooking for me and making me Korean red ginseng tea (I’m pretty sure she has prescribed a cup of this to me daily for life - which means I’ll be buying a lot of honey to counter the bitterness!)

I am incredibly fortunate. A friend set up a meal train which filled so quickly and for so long that I had to ask her to remove some dates!  Our fridge and freezer are not that big!  My husband is losing his mind because he is the kind who never wants to accept help from anyone (but would offer you help at any time).

For the most part, my recovery has been uneventful and smooth.  One of the more amusing stories from this time was when my 5 year old started to melt down with a type of tantrum he usually reserves for me.  In my attempt to calm him without using my arms, he bit down on my finger.  My dad said, “No biting mommy!!!” And my 6 year old said, “Yeah! Especially when she has cancer!!”  

This brings me to my follow-up appointment with the breast surgeon.  She had just received the surgery’s pathology results.  This was not fun.  Turns out 2 of my 7 sentinel nodes showed cancer, one being 2.5mm which bumps it up a category.  Long story short, this is where the word “feisty” came up. I have also heard my kind of cancer called travelers.  For a pretty small invasive tumor in the breast, a surprising amount made it to those nodes.  And while the invasive tumor was small, there was a LOT of DCIS (aka pre-cancer) in there.  The take away was that it looked like the start of a massive wildfire.  That also means guaranteed chemo and likely radiation (to be discussed further with the oncologist this coming week).  Not what we were hoping to hear.  I was mentally preparing for chemo but I wanted to do it in an abundance of caution.  I didn’t want it to be mandatory.  The other significant bit from the pathology- there were cancer cells extremely close to the nipple.  That will have to be removed in my future reconstruction surgery.  So my nice neat subtle scars might not be so subtle when it’s all said and done.

Again, we should have more details later in the week but the breast surgeon’s prediction was chemo starting around Christmas and lasting 4-6 months.  I forget the timing of radiation, but we are likely on the long haul for the next year or so.  

That pretty much brings us current on the medical front. After so much family around and as I’m able to do a tad more around the house, we have decided to skip our planned thanksgiving in NYC and make it a quiet break at home.