After a couple days rest in the hospital, mom is home recovering. According to the surgeon her lumpectomy, lymph dissection and port placement were all completed successfully. We took her home and got her settled in yesterday morning. Her blood pressure is now stable, but she’s still pretty sore. Her home care pretty much consists of monitoring blood pressure, measuring fluid from her drain every few hours and making sure she gets good nutrition, water and plenty of rest. We were able to get her a wrist BP monitor and a few of us in the medical field have offered to help her with her drain care. Thank you Chuckie and Missy!  (Andy could also do it, but he might vomit- lol) Also, I’m happy to report that as of yesterday she hasn’t smoked a cigarette in 3 days! Let’s hope she keeps it up!

We have a few follow up appointments in the next few weeks, and are anticipating chemo to begin sometime at the end of January or beginning of February.

The past 3 days have certainly been exhausting for us, but also provided us the opportunity to spend valuable time together as a family. I’d like to specifically thank our spouses (Lamurvin, Amber, & John) for picking up the slack on the home front, and giving us the emotional support we so need right now. We all have responsibilities within our immediate families, and without the understanding of our spouses the additional stresses can be very tuff.  I learned a long time ago, you can’t be a good caregiver without being cared for yourself, so for that we thank you. Although we are all dealing with mom’s diagnosis in our own ways, us being together and on the same team makes it much easier.