Surgery Day

I'm exhausted! What an incredibly long day it has been. My bed is calling me very loudly, especially since I didn't get much sleep at all last night-a mixture of nervous stomach and a brain that wouldn't shut off. So, I am hoping for a good night's sleep tonight. We were at the hospital at 7am this morning and I got home at 9:30pm. Today was filled with lots of sitting around in waiting rooms, eating cafeteria food, waiting around some more and then sitting with Mom.

Enough about me........Pauline did great in her surgery! :-) That is the happy news. The surgery went well. The sentinal lymph node frozen cross section biopsy came back negative for cancer! That was the news that I was waiting and wanting to hear. Now, we wait for the detailed pathology report on the 2 lymph nodes that were removed. We should get that report back by the end of the week. Once we get those results, then we go on to the next step in the process. (hormone therapy if the cancer didn't spread or chemotherapy/radiation therapy if it did). The doctor did say that she didn't see anything abnormal in the size of the tumor. It didn't grow in the month since the diagnosis. She didn't see any surprises during the surgery, so that is another very good thing. On a non-surgerical side, mom's sodium level was really low before the surgery and she had to be pumped up with saline solution sooner than they thought. She almost didn't have the surgery because it was low. But, it creeped up a bit in time for surgery. Dr. Pratt is keeping an eye on that and if it is still low tomorrow, then Mom will stay in the hospital one more day. She will have to discuss with her primary physician about changing a blood pressure medication, which could be reducing her sodium level. (another thing to follow up on). But, all in all, Mom did great and she is now on the road to recovery. She's obviously in ALOT of pain. But, pain medicine is a good thing!

We made it through Step 2....now we wait for the pathology test results. Then it will be on to Step 3.