Thanks again for all your prayers! After a somewhat challenging drive to New Haven over icy roads (Serge was magnificent at the wheel), the surgery yesterday went very smoothly. Before I gave up my glasses in the operating room, I told all the doctors and nurses that y’all were praying for them. The pre-op nurse wasn’t able to get an IV started in me, but the anesthesiologist had no trouble. Perhaps because my IV was started just moments before the surgery began, I actually felt the anesthesia coming over me, which was weird. But the next thing I knew I was in the recovery room, asking for my glasses and my husband and something to drink.

I had been told that I’d be wrapped with ace bandages over my surgical dressing, but when I got up to get dressed, I was surprised by the extent of the bandaging. After my mastectomy, I had a gauze pad held on by a stick-on sheet of clear plastic. Now I am bound half an inch deep in gauze and elastic, from the bottom of my rib cage to my collar bone, with bandages formed into straps going up over both shoulders. It’s tight enough that I can’t breathe deeply, which keeps me from doing anything too quickly. (Just as well.) It’s basically a torso cast, which stays on until my post-op visit tomorrow.

We were on our way home by early afternoon yesterday, and when we got here I had some soup and a nap and then more soup. Our overnight was complicated by a many-hour power outage, which began just as Beth and her friend Alyssa were starting to make dinner. As the house got colder, Beth went over to Alyssa’s for the evening, and Serge, Anna, and I considered going down to Wilton. We decided to wait to decide until after Serge went over to Danbury Hospital to visit our friend Mark, who had a big back surgery yesterday. (UMCD and prayer team members reading this: Mark is doing really well. As of last night, he was cheerful, chatty, and not in pain.) Serge picked up a pizza on the way home, which we ate by candlelight, under blankets. We decided to stay in Danbury, because going to Wilton would have made it too hard to get Anna to school, with Serge leaving early this morning for New Jersey and me unable to drive. The power came back on sometime during the night. I woke up once in a significant amount of pain, but Serge brought me a gram of Tylenol, and that fixed me right up.

Today I’m feeling pretty good as long as I don’t move my right arm or shoulder, stand up suddenly, or move too quickly. My blood pressure seems a little fluky, and I’m coming down off the big dose of steroids they gave me yesterday. I’m a little tired and achy, and I think I’ll go back to bed for a while.

Serge had an update all ready for you when the power (and internet) went out yesterday. Since he wasn’t able to post it, I wanted to let you know that I’m feeling much better than I was prepared to feel! Post-op visit is in New Haven tomorrow afternoon, after which I will be able to take a shower. It’s amazing how much the little things count…