Recovery

 For those of you bearing through my terrible writing, sorry. I am going to quit going in chronological order and just list some random comments from the rest of the hospital stay.

- The second night after the surgery the NG tube came out in the middle of the night (I probably pulled it out in my sleep) and Brad had to hold me down to put it back in. That was probably the lowest moment.  The doctor later said that if they would have asked him he would have let it stay out. That didn't help.

- I had to go to the bathroom the first night and still needed help getting out of bed. After the crazy weekend Brad was tired and in a deep sleep. He didn't hear me calling his name because I couldn't talk loud because of the tube. I finally had to turn on the light and it still took him over a minute to wake up. I knew he had been run ragged those first couple days but didn't realize how much.

- I had to get the IV 3 different times and one time it took 3 tries to get it. I do not like needles.

- I was able to pump throughout the hospital stay and started feeding Gavin again as soon as the heavy duty drugs were out of my system. I worked a lot with the hospital lactation consultant. I still feel like my supply is low and am trying to build it back up. After I was in the hospital one night last summer I told myself to pump a lot because you never know. So I had a good bit of milk stored up. I am pretty much through my supply but I have 2 friends that have given me some of their extra. Now that is a good friend!

- I was one of "those" patients... on one of our first walks around the hallway a nurse came up to tie my gown better in the back. I guess I was showing a little cheek. Oops.

- One night I had a vivid dream that included the IV machine "talking" to me. When the nursing assistant came in I told her it was talking to me. She didn't seem too amused. Brad woke up and told me that they were going to keep me here in a straight jacket if I keep talking like that.  I was so mad at Brad that I told him he wasn't doing much good staying the night with me.

- I am so grateful for all the friends who stopped by to see how I was doing. Many brought gifts or food for Brad. We are so blessed by the support we have received!

- A few pictures from before surgery...

- This one was taken after we were both teary eyed. It was emotional before the surgery.

- Everyone loved it when the boys came up to visit. Chase stopped by several times. He loved coming up because he got ice cream.

- Jacob only came up once. Like Brad wrote on facebook, a 1 year old in the hospital is like a bull in a china cabinet. But I sure do love that smile.

- I was really scared to see my stomach but it wasn't as bad as I thought. They saved my belly button!!

- The oncologist Brad chose, stopped by on Thursday afternoon. He is the one that delivered the good news that the cancer was not in any lymph nodes. In the hospital it seemed like he was against chemo. I am Stage II A and oncologists are divided on whether to give chemo to those patients. We have since met with him in his office and it seems like after talking to his partners he is leaning towards it. I have a PET Scan and upper chest CT scan tomorrow and they are doing a few more tests before they give a recommendation. Prayers for wisdom in that decision would be appreciated.

- My view. Like I said I was grateful for all the flowers!

 - They were originally thinking I would be discharged on Saturday but after some pain in the morning eating that first meal the doctor said he wanted to keep me one more night. The pain was gone by the afternoon and I asked if they could call the doctor and see if I could go. The doctor said no. From then on I felt trapped in the room. On Sunday the doctor didn't make his rounds till close to 12 and then it took about 2 hours to get the paperwork. I had to do some deep breathing to not hyper ventilate. I was so ready to be home.

I'm sure I will think of more later but I get pressure to keep this updated! I think its funny when I run into people who I haven't seen for a while. I can tell if they are asking how I am doing because they haven't seen me or because they heard what has happened.