I never thought I’d be on the highway on Black Friday, but there I was.  A was driving, thankfully, and it was POURING.  I had my drain out today.  E and I called B from the road after dropping A off with a friend and we ordered a nice fire and squash soup from the freezer…both to be hot when we finally got home.  Just a quick stop at Dick’s to pick up a new snowboard and it was 4:15 and DARK.  We got home to a warm fire, bubbling soup and B’s delicious nachos.  I delayed the gratification of my first shower in 2 1/2 weeks until my belly was  full and I had time to check in with B.

The visit with our surgeon went well.  She had the drain out before I could finish my salutations.  (I was HOPING beyond HOPE that it would not be as painful as the removal of a running stitch that I had in my back  years ago.)  We reviewed the pathology report from the axillary node disection.  Initially the pathologist only split the nodes in half and concluded that there was not activity in them.  The surgeon requested that he slice them up and look microscopically, and so the addendum to the report indicated that there were 8 nodes, 3 of which had activity, 5 did not.  This was totally enough information to tell me/us that we made the right decision to have them removed.  At this point we are working on a microscopic level rather than a palpable level.  I appreciate our surgeon’s attention to detail.  She is a pony that I am so grateful is in our stampede.  She left me with a bandage about 2″x2″ over the hole where the drain went in just above my last rib and that was it. Follow up visit in 3 weeks just to check on fluid build up.  It felt like I left her office without an appendage.

The unknown now is simply whether 7 out of 12 nodes having some traces of tumor cells is enough to warrant radiation.  I am celebrating that 5 out of 12 had no activity.  That feels like good news to me and I just want to acknowledge that.  We meet with the oncologist on Tuesday morning.

Oh yea, the shower!  Glorious, I must say.  It was my first time since the mastectomy that I could actually see the whole scar.  The only bandage was over the drain hole.  No tubing.  No pads.  Nothing but me.  The warm water and steam felt wonderful.  Between the soup, the fire and the shower, I was sufficiently warmed to do the dozen or so arm exercises recommended after mastectomy.  I was surprised that I COULD do some movements, and more surprised that I could not do others.  Lying on my back in the snow angel position, I cannot pull my left arm up further than shoulder height today.  It gives me something to strive for before there is enough snow to make my first angel of the season.