A Beagle and A Baby: Really back to normal

Monday, January 20, 2020

Really back to normal

I mentioned before that my oncologist and I are both obsessed with Baby Yoda, so when I saw that Hurts Donut was selling Baby Yoda donuts, I knew I had to get them for both of us. Her birthday was on Sunday the 12th, and she had to do rounds at the hospital that morning, so I met her in the parking lot to give her her bonus gift.

I got her 4 Baby Yoda donuts,

And these bonuses.

I ordered two for us,

and these four bonuses.

Oh. My. God. So cute!

My friend Heather texted me that afternoon. She lives on the complete opposite side of the valley, but she was close by and wanted to know if she could stop by.

We had Michael take a picture of us having a serious conversation about serious topics.

I finally went back to work on Monday the 13th. There were Christmas presents waiting for me in my mailbox. That's how long I was gone!

I got to put the new pig calendar up on the bulletin board.

I tried to take a picture of myself to announce to Facebook that I was back to work. This was not so good.

This was better.

Tuesday the 14th was the one year anniversary of my double mastectomy. I'll include what I posted on FB, because I can't re-write it any better here.

***

One year ago today, at about 10:00 am, I arrived at the hospital for a 12:00 double mastectomy with immediate implant based reconstruction. Then both of my surgeons went to the wrong hospital so the whole thing was delayed a few hours. I probably should have taken that as a sign of what 2019 actually held for me.

I'm giving a thumbs up in the picture because I figured I'd have surgery, do radiation, and be done with cancer by April. Ha! So naive.

I didn't know, that morning, that cancer had already spread to my lymph nodes so they had to take all of those out. I didn't know that three weeks later I'd be going into surgery again to place a chemo port to start chemo the week after. I didn't know the left implant would fail and within eight weeks I'd have two more surgeries (that's four surgeries in eight weeks, mathematicians). I didn't know the combo of chemo and all the operations would make me feel like survival was impossible. I didn't know radiation was months away and it would leave me with burns clear through my entire chest wall. I didn't know I'd switch surgeons and end up with an entirely different and better plan for reconstruction. I didn't know.

I'm a totally different person today than I was a year ago. I think I'm a better person, albeit with less hair and fewer body parts. That's a joke. Today I woke up next to a husband I love, got ready with kids I love, and went to work at a job I love. I feel pretty damn good. Cancer didn't win this time around.

I'll kick off the middle finger medley to cancer for anyone that wants to join.

***

These are the pictures I included.

I worked on Wednesday the 15th. Tracy, who is the Occupational Therapy assistant, and I bought matching shirts back at the beginning of the year. It was the first day we remembered to both wear them.

We were so proud of it!

Steve, the physical therapist, was also there that day. I told him he needed to have a matching shirt too, so I took this picture to show him when I stopped at Target on the way home. It's a women's shirt, but I think he could pull it off.