Yes, I Get by With a Little Help From My Friends

Archie loved that I was hanging out on the porch so much the last couple of weeks.

So this will be a more random post today. We met with the surgical oncologist on Friday. She said everything looked great, the incision site was healing up. There are no signs of infection and all that's left now is a dark purple, smile shaped scar around my left breast. I had John look at it a few times in the last couple of weeks and he had already told me that.  It definitely helps to have an ortho the tech for a live-in life partner in crime. She did say that she wanted me to still see the radiation oncologist and the medical oncologist to consider further treatment. I will definitely go and hear them out, but the surgical oncologist said that if she thought anti hormone therapy or radiation therapy would make a big difference, she would have told me to do it and she didn't think she could say that. Since I like to err on the side of the least invasive treatment, I might just watch it and get regular mammograms for now.

People have asked me if I went stir crazy being home for two and a half weeks. The answer to that is HELL NO! I love my house and, especially after I got off the drugs and the worst of the pain and stuff, my days were filled with books and painting canvasses and looking longingly at my cats and gardens. How could I be stir crazy....Especially, since I was allowed to go for little walks outside on the days where I felt strong enough.

John did worry that I would feel isolated during my convalescence, but my friends and my daughters wouldn't let me. Holy cow, but John and my girls and my friends are amazing.

My friend Joanne let me walk with her and her dogs to her house on my first walk after my surgery. MnMOM and my friend Kit, bought me a $50 gift card to the co-op, with which, we bought a quiche, a nice bottle of red wine and some fancy things to put in a salad. My friend Molly bought me a $50 gift card to Prairie Lights, with which, I bought 3 books (since I read 6.5 novels while I was home, it was nice to have more selections). My friend Matt left a big bottle of homemade pesto sauce with tons of garlic in it, with which I made some pesto shrimp linguini. My friend Brittany came over and gave me some awesome graphic novels to read. John's ex-girlfriend brought over some homemade corn chowder soup and some lovely bread from the Co-op. My friend Ginger came over with the gorgeous sunflowers you see above. My friend Carrie brought over some turkey zucchini tetrazzini, a plate of brownies, some cut-up fruit and two Goose Island beers for me and John. My friend Lydia left me a bag of girly make-up type samples, that I had no idea how to use, but Stinky was kind enough to come over and tell me what they were and show me how to use them. Speaking of Stinky, she came over several times to check up on me and brought her puppy to go for walks with me and have lunch and get ice cream with me. Of course, John did so much for me, that I don't have the time or space to list it all.

From the list above, you might assume that I have gained a TON of weight these last couple of weeks, but strangely enough, I have lost a little weight. The big problem with that, is now I think I can eat whatever I want without gaining weight and that has never been true, especially now, when Winter is coming...

I am back at work today. I was dreading it, but now that I'm here, it's just fine. I will definitely miss my beautiful days filled with literature and art and nice, slow walks, and flowers and bees and butterflies...But I will have some nice, quiet, time away from my cats now.