On My Own

Today I am by myself for the morning. Tomorrow Rob is going back to work. Rob had me shower yesterday by myself. It was OK until I had to touch my gaping hole in my belly to find the gauze the nurse had packed in there. I did get it all, but it freaked me out. I haven't looked at it yet, but touching it has reaffirmed that I shouldn't.

I woke up this morning with pain on my heel. I realized that my heels were so dry that it split open. I guess not moisturizing and walking much has killed my feet. :( I will have to bandage it good so it won't get infected.

So looking forward to my Dr appointment on Friday.

Stuck in the House

I wish I could go out. I wish my belly would heal. At least it is less than a week until my appointment. It would nice to have more visitors.

The exercises are really difficult, but I know if I don't do them I will lose mobility in my left arm. So I do them. Rob keeps trying to encourage me and tells me that if I don't do them I won't get my yummy dinner. Push through the pain.

Visiting Nurse

The visiting nurse is now coming every day. She checked the wound in my belly and found it worse since last time she saw it. She made a new report for the belly and released the checking of the breast. The belly wound has gotten wider and deeper. It is 3cm deep in one area on the right. This might be why I might have the pain on the right side. The nurse is going to come every day now until I see my plastic surgeon on the 15th. I am not allowed in any public places until the open wound is closed. Since it is so cold out, I am limited to the apartment. At least I am not in the hospital.

Yesterday was nice though. My mom's friend, Ruth, got us a cleaning lady. It nice to have a nice clean house.

Good Day

I had the appointment with the surgeon today. She is very happy with the look of the breast and even gave me exercises to start today to get my arm mobility back. She checked my belly and the redness was lower than the line was yesterday. She said I was OK enough not to need the IV antibiotics. The visiting nurse is suppose to start coming everyday, so she should be able to keep an eye on it. The doctor also suggested that the plastic surgeon clean up the belly and close it up. We will be discussing that with him next week. I really don't want to have this open wound for weeks, since I am not allowed in public places while I have it. It limits where I am allowed to go.

Other than that, we are hanging in there. We thank everyone for their thoughts and well wishes. Rob is going back to work next week and I will be good next week to be by myself.

My next appointment is for the plastic surgeon next Friday.

Problems Healing

I had my appointment with the plastic surgeon today. Since my surgeon is still on vacation, I saw one of his associates. She was very nice. She said the breast is healing beautifully, which we already knew. She examined my belly and was not happy with how it is healing. I have a 4-6 inch opening in my belly that is about 1/2 inch deep. She changed the dressing type and gave me stronger antibiotics. She also drew a line on my belly where it is red and if the new antibiotics do not shrink it or if it goes above the line tomorrow, I have to go back into the hospital for a few days of IV antibiotics. If everything looks OK at tomorrow's appointment, then I will see my plastic surgeon on the 15th and discuss whether to leave it heal or go in for out patient surgery to clean the opening and close it up.

We will know more tomorrow.

Restful Weekend

It was Rob's birthday today. I wasn't able to do anything more than sing him happy birthday. Sean has been saying it to him all day and saying Daddy wanted present. Rob took him to the mall to get them both out of the house.

I am hanging in there. I get to leave the house tomorrow for my appointment with the plastic surgeon. Hopefully, he will think the open wound on my belly is doing OK. Good thing is that it doesn't hurt. I really have no feeling there at all. We will see what he says.

Pathology Report

Happy New Year! My surgeon called last night with my pathology report. It was good news. My tumor was 3.5 cm and the ones that had only shown up on the MRI were actually extensions of the larger tumor. It was good that I had the mastecomy. I am listed as Stage IIA. All the nodes that were removed were listed as N0 - which is considered negative, but one lymphnode did have isolated tumor cells. Dr said that was still ok. I have to do some research into it.

Our next step is choosing an oncologist to discuss treatment options. Dr Axelrod said she would fit me in on Monday before her surgery and then I can see Dr Levine, the plastic surgeon, since that appt was changed to Monday, both follow up appts.