A time lapse photo collage of pictures taken at my tree (mostly – I snuck in a couple from Big Basin and Yosemite) – here is the link for those that don’t see the slide show below – http://dttocs.smugmug.com/photos/swfpopup.mg?AlbumID=46685634&AlbumKey=XbMQZx
It was never more clear than when I was in the hospital, that I needed my husband, and I needed him to be just as engaged in my care as I was (or perhaps even more so). There were several times when things where not quite right, but I was not in any shape to…
Emotions flood over me in waves. Whenever I think about it, I cannot stop crying. It has been a roller coaster of a journey, and it is now officially over! What do I mean? As of Dec 17th, I’m cancer free. The double mastectomy removed the last bits of cancer from my breasts. The pathology…
At day 3 (Saturday), things started to look a little better. I was moved over to the window. The room I was in was the tiniest of hospital rooms. The single room I had on my last stay was almost the same size as the double room I was in for days 3 and 4.…
The first time I looked down at my new breasts (day after surgery, during the first dressing change), my first thought was that they were a little smaller than I expected. Now, I had told me surgeons that I’d be happy with about a 20% reduction in size, but somehow, I didn’t really internalize what…
This morning began with a shower. Being efficiency minded as we are wont to be, we used this as an opportunity to strip and empty drains and change all dressings (required once per day). I didn’t choose to use soap in this shower – since it was my first one – I simply hopped into…
Over the next few days, I’ll try and get caught up on reporting about my hospital experience. It was a mixed experience, certainly not all positive but I had some pretty terrific nurses and nurse assistants, and a pretty terrific husband caregiver too – which made it go much better than it otherwise would have.…
I shall be undergoing major surgery in less than 48-hours. Just before support group on Saturday, it occurred to me that the whole idea of surgery has become normalized for me. Within the breast cancer community, we often talk about surgery as if it were a ‘normal’ occurrence. After being immersed into the community for…
My energy returns and I’m stuck with the daunting task of prioritizing all the things on my to do list – all those things that I’ve been avoiding or just plain not doing because I could not concentrate, or did not have the energy. Now I’m finding myself so crazy overwhelmed with a to do…
This morning I’ll be making a return visit to the dermatologist that specializes in nails (the nail doctor) to have my big toes checked – this time he is actually checking the toes, as the nails are no longer there! From my view, they are healing well and almost ready to be left to their…
