Hello all.

Is it 2025 yet? What a journey we've had this year... As Amie posted last time, this is surgery week. Her procedure was on Monday at the University of Chicago, and it went as well as the team expected.

Early AM on Monday with a 4:00 alarm and quick trip downtown. The CCD building is much different than DCAM - the waiting room is on the 7th floor with views of the city all around, which is nice. You can't eat and drink in the waiting area though, which was a pain. But there was a good café that had all kinds of food and goof views there too...so we spent time in a few different spots. Surgery began around 8:30, and I received the first call from Dr. Shubeck (breast surgical oncologist) at 10 saying she was done with her part (removal), and that Amie was in Dr. Bederman's (plastic surgeon) hands now. I was expecting 5-6 hours, so 90 minutes was quite a surprise for me...and gave me the false sense of hope that this would wrap up quick. 3.5 hours later (nearly at the 5 hour mark) I got the call from Dr. Bederman that she was done and Amie had moved to recovery, and both agreed that everything had gone as expected with no surprises. 

As most of us know, hospitals are great places to go if you're sick, but pretty crappy when you're trying to get better. Amie had a room within a few hours, and a nice inpatient room with contact precaution double doors to boot. That gave us advance warning anytime anyone came in, but did a good job of keeping the noise down. So the revolving door of visits started - fellows, residents, 3 fantastic nurses, MAs, and on and on. Every few hours, all night and into the next day. So come yesterday morning we were both ready to get out and home. Wishes granted! We saw Dr. Bederman's fellows/residents, and Dr. Shubeck came in to chat for a bit. She was eager to get Amie home as well. 

So just one night in the hospital and we're home. She has 4 drains that we're monitoring every few hours and keeping track of discharge on an itty-bitty chart (author's note: So you strip these things to ensure they stay open with no blockages. It's easier for me to do it, and on my second tube - no, I didn't pull one out - the tube collapsed and things stopped draining so I thought I broke it...lol. Rest assured, dear reader,  that all is well...the tube finally expanded back out and things are moving again.) Amie is up and around better than we expected her to be. She definitely feels it when she's moving, but feels okay when she's resting - so the plan is lots of rest! Spent last night in the living room in the recliner (with me on an air mattress for a bit and then the couch), but we're trying out the bed with the foam wedges now to see if that'll be better. We're on top of the pain with the meds and will keep up with that. She really wants a shower...but not until tomorrow at the earliest.

Follow-ups at U of C next week with a hope to get some drains out (all if possible) and begin to chart the path towards the next big step. We'll continue to see Dr. Bederman to get the expanders set and then final reconstruction procedure this fall. 

I've been measuring this journey by milestones - needed to get through 6/6 chemo treatments to hit "level one", get through surgery to hit "level two", and now we just have reconstruction left to achieve "level 3" and the end of the road. How odd is that to say - just have reconstruction left. I know that this is a lifetime thing too, so it's not the end of the road exactly, but what a way to measure a year...

As always, I'm humbled and we are blessed to have so much support from everyone. The calls, texts, Facebook comments/likes - they are amazing as are all of you! Love to you all!

Matt, Amie, Paige & Cameron