By the time you read this I will be a day out of surgery and back home. It still amazes me that you can go through fairly extensive surgery and stay only one night at the hospital – but that’s beside the point. 

This past week has been a little more level for me emotionally primarily because I’ve stayed very busy getting everything wrapped up here at the house (groceries, bills, laundry – the usual stuff). 

I had a good checkup with Dr. Chinnasami last week and everything was normal except for my Vitamin D level which was low so I’m on a gazillion units of Vitamin D (actually I think it’s 50,000 units – it’s a ridiculous number). I guess that the D deficiency was related to chemo but I’m not sure – will ask next time. 

Today I met with Dr. Virgil Willard again and he marked me for surgery – and that means he literally marked on my chest with a Sharpie Marker. I usually ask a lot of questions and want a lot of details but this time I don’t. In fact, I’m trying really hard NOT to focus on the details of surgery. Dr. Willard (the plastic surgeon) and Dr. Biesecker (my general surgeon) know what they are doing. I totally trust them – but I really do not want to focus on things like incision locations. I’ll know those soon enough. 

Dr. Willard has a nurse named Becky who is a Godsend. She came in and told me she had bilateral mastectomies and reconstruction surgery about 12 years ago. She looks great but that’s not the whole story. She told me she’d be with me holding my hand before surgery and throughout the surgery. How about that! I seriously doubt that many hospitals or surgeons have someone like that to help their patients through this. 

I’m back to not sleeping well again – it’s totally a stress thing. But I’m reading feel-good books (Debbie Macomber’s are guaranteed to make you feel good) so I’m escaping from reality in a non-destructive way. At least I hope so! 

My friends and family have been great sources of support – just like they have the since December. I’m just ready to fast forward through the next two weeks. 

I’ll write more early next week. I’m sure I’ll have lots to tell you and I feel certain I’ll be more positive once I’m on the other side of this deal.