October 12
Surgery Day.It's here. The day I had been dreading since I knew my mom was getting a double mastectomy. But deep down I knew my mom was dreading this day more. Who in their right mind would look forward to this day. The only good thing about this day was that the doctors were getting this damn thing out of my mom's body. The body of a person that had made me laugh, smile, push me, and comfort me for 22 years was turning against her.
Waking up that morning was too easy. Usually it's been taking me between 45 minutes to an hour to get out of bed. But right when Mom walked into my room after taking her shower I was up. She figured she ought to take one more shower while she could comfortably wash her hair and move with ease. Now I wish I could stay in bed and this day would float on by. But that wasn't going to happen. No matter what. So Dad, Mom, and I gathered up our stuff for the next couple days. Now in Mom and Alison fashion (more Mom though) were left a little late.
The drive was a quiet, somber one. No one really brought up too much to talk about. About half way through the drive we finally turned on the radio, though it didn't help much.
We all still knew where we were going and there was no turning back now. In all honesty Mom probably should've drove. We were on the same route that she takes everyday to work. Mom and Dad debated which turn to take though and we got a little off track. All well, a little comic relief is what this car needed.
Finally arrived at the Hospital. I'm not sure whether to be happy or sad; or even if I'm ready for this day to be mentally and physically draining. But we should be grateful. Grateful that it was caught early and by the end of the day this thing will be taken out once and for all. So for now I attempt to smile and stay upbeat.
Mom gets checked in with the front desk and we're taken back to the first of many waiting room that we're bound to be in today. Let the day begin with hours of waiting, being patient, and hoping/wishing/praying for the best.
7:45 am: we continue to wait until Mom gets taken away. Mom, Dad and I all have our noses buried into our phones, just trying to pass time in the easiest way possible.
7:55 am: Mom gets called back for something and only one person gets to go, and apparently Dad takes priority over me. Typical. :P
7:57 am: They're back. For now at least.
8:00 am: Gone again. Possibly pre-surgery stuff.
8:37 am: Still gone and I've officially seen the entire internet now. Not sure what to do now, so let the blog writing begin.
8:42 am: Pager goes off. Head to front desk. Finally get taken back to see my mom one last time before surgery.
8:44 am: My mom is hands-down the cutest and most upbeat person in their scrubs. And just so everyone knows, she decided to put do a thumbs up in her pictures. I think it's reassuring to see that she's kicking cancer's butt!!
We continue to wait in this little tiny waiting room. Talking, making jokes, solving the world's problems. You know, typical stuff you do when you have a lot of time. Well we also fiddle with our phones and try to keep updating Facebook to see what everyone else is dong. Mom keeps sending text messages left and right to everyone telling her that they're thinking of her during the surgery.
At 8:58 am we talk about when Dad was in the hospital and the huge needles that he was being stabbed with. And knowing how much Sheri Moen hates then, we did the only logical thing and sent her a picture of the one in Mom's arm. :) By 9:00 we have to charge her phone due to it being on for the last 3 hours. Boy oh boy it's going to be a long day.
9:27 am: On her way to get injected with radioactive dye. The dye will "find" the sentinel lymph nodes so the doctor will know which one(s) to take and check for further spread of the cancer.
10:21 am: Back from radioactive dye. Mom was given this homemade stress ball. This was to help the spread of the dye to the the nodes. The picture doesn't do it justice but it's a small handful of medical gloves inside another glove that blown up a little bit. Mom got a really big kick out of this and couldn't stop laughing then the fingers would pop up.
11:14 am: Just more waiting. Nurses would come in and see how she's doing. They would ask a bunch of questions. The anesthesiologist came in and he asked if she had been under anesthetics or on any medication. It was interesting watching him solely knowing how smart he is. He never wrote anything down, just remembered everything.
11:49 am: SURGERY TIME. Mom gets wheeled away and she still in good spirits. Bless her soul. She's been so optimistic and calm through this whole thing. I'm not sure how she hasn't been freaking out or crying during this whole time. She truly is a strong woman. Dad and I watch mom go the opposite direction and that's our cue to leave to find something for lunch. We hope in the car and start driving somewhere. Our destination: unknown.
12:00 pm: Finally I come up with the GREATEST idea. Tasty Taco!!! For all of you that haven't been to the Des Moines area and don't know what that is, I'm sorry. But it's pretty much the most delicious Mexican restaurant ever. The flour tacos are so fluffy and mouth watering. Afterwards I head to work, strictly because I needed to do my time sheet. Only problem, Dad dropped me off while everyone else was at lunch, including my supervisor. He needed to sign off on my hours, so I attempted to be productive but it didn't work since my mind was else where. I somewhat get a few things done around the office, though it may have been minimal. A couple of co-workers stopped by my cubicle and were surprised to see me. They asked how my mom was doing, but at that point there wasn't much I could say. I kept it as positive as I could with "well she was smiling before surgery."
1:30 pm: Dad and I arrive back at the hospital. We've been shown yet another waiting room. But this one was full of other family members. The more I looked around the more I saw the worried faces. Everyone had to be thinking the same thing - How long had my family member been in surgery? Was it going well? Are they going to be out soon? When do we hear from the doctor(s)? I wonder what those people are in here for? Are they going threw cancer as well? Man I sure hope not. That would really stink. Cancer sucks, like it fucking sucks.
Dad managed to set us down in a spot so I had plenty of room to sprawl out, that man sure has payed attention whenever I come home from college. :) I took over the entire couch and coffee table while he sat quietly in a chair. We were given this pager upon check-in that enables the doctors to get a hold of us. Now they should only contact us 3 times while Mom is in surgery: once after the first doctor is done, once after the second doctor is done, and lastly when she's ready to go up to her room.
I entertain myself with continuing to write my blog because there is no way I'll be able to work on homework. Between Mom's phone and mine, we got text messages throughout the afternoon asking how she was doing or people thinking of her. Man that lady definitely has a lot of people checking in on her.
2:08 pm: Dad and I get paged!!! This is such a fabulous sign! Considering that Mom didn't get wheeled back to surgery until a little before noon, we didn't expect to hear back from the 1st doctor until around 3 o'clock.
He didn't have anything but good news to tell us. He told us that the tumors hadn't spread through the chest wall, therefore the possibility of no chemo or radiation may come true!! EEK!! :) The radioactive dye that was injected earlier travels through Mom's body and the first place it comes to is the sentinel lymph nodes. It is standard procedure to have a sentinel lymph node biopsy on the same side of the tumors, which was the right. Since the dye had 'found' 4 lymph nodes, the doctor took them all out and sent them to testing. The first test being done was cutting them in half and seeing if either side was malignant or benign. The doctor had informed us that the initial test came back negative for cancer. I couldn't hide my happiness, this was such a relief!!! I definitely think Dad was feeling a little bit better after this news as well. But back into the waiting room we go for more waiting. I send out a mass text to Mom's friends, family, and co-workers of the update from the doctor. Man, that lady sure does have a lot of people looking out for her.
2:44 pm: Pager goes off a second time. This means that the surgery is done! Holy cow, it had gone by ssoooooo fast! The second doctor had relieved our thoughts and presented us the same good news. He had given Mom 'fillers' which were placed under her chest muscles. This in itself sounds so painful and somewhat unnerving, but I know my Mom will pull through this with very little complaints. I'm so thankful that Mom had done very well while in surgery, now just waiting for her to wake up.
“Every day may not be good, but there’s something good in every day.” -Unknown
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