029- Officially cancer free!

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It's been a bit since I've written. It's been a real whirlwind the past month. I've been wanting to write this post since I had surgery, but the mental space hasn't shown up until now. This may be a bit of a rambling post. But if you know me well, you know that I'm about as "real" as it gets--- what you see is what you get. I'm hoping to have this be the last blog post that I write about this cancer business. I'd like to get back to writing about the stuff that inspires me!

Here's the original post: <click here> if you missed it. Here's the basics....

After finding a weird "lump" on my rib bone, I had a biopsy on July 19. We found out it was cancer, but not breast cancer, the next day. HUGE shoutout to my amazing surgeon, Dr. Kennedy, her MA Joyce, and her team for fast-tracking everything! She referred me to UC Davis Medical Center in Sacramento. The referral process was frustrating and took too long, but we got through it. We had our first appointment with Dr. Canter, a highly regarded sarcoma specialist, on August 7. We met with Dr. Allen, the reconstructive surgeon, on August 16. Surgery was scheduled for August 23. Overall, it moved pretty quickly.

The original plan was to remove the tumor (estimated at about 4cm in size), a rib or two, some surrounding tissue, and then put it all back together with a reconstruction "flap" from somewhere else in my body. This was planned to be all one surgery. Reconstruction had 4 potential options after removing the tumor (with good, clean margins) and one rib. 1. sew me back up, and send me on my way (best case scenario); 2. take skin/tissue/fat/muscle from my back; 3. take skin/tissue/fat/muscle from my thigh; and 4. take skin/tissue/fat/muscle from my groin. They didn't know what they'd have to do until they got in there.

We had to be at the hospital at 5:30am on Wednesday, August 23. Luckily, our hotel was within walking distance to the hospital. How many people can say they walked to the hospital for a pretty major surgery? ;-) We got checked in and they took me back to a little cubicle area. They did all their prep work, got the IV started, gave me the super sexy hospital gown, etc. All the doctors that were going to be in the surgery came by. Since it's a teaching hospital, there were a lot of doctors. I wasn't quite sure which ones were interns and residents, but I kept thinking about Greys Anatomy. I'm sure I know a lot about how that process works since I've watched season after season of GA. ;-)

Andy was able to come back and sit with me for awhile. I think they wheeled me to the operating room around 7:45am. I remember that. The last thing that I remember is them putting the triangular shaped oxygen mask on me..... Surgery was estimated to be 6-12 hours, depending on the type of reconstruction. Dr. Canter called Andy, after less than 4 hours, and said I was out of surgery. They were able to remove the tumor and part of 1 rib bone, and didn't have to do any major reconstruction. BEST CASE SCENARIO! When they told me this later, I was so unbelievably grateful.

I was originally told that I would need to be in the hospital for a least a week. Luckily, that was an overestimation. The pain was manageable with Tylenol and Motrin. They said I could go home on Saturday. Since we had a 5-ish hour drive home, we wanted to make sure I got discharged in the morning. The doctors removed a wound vac that was helping it heal. The incision looked amazing after they removed it. You would've thought my surgery had been a couple weeks earlier. The drive home wasn't bad. Luckily we had stopped at Target before the surgery to grab a pillow and that helped a lot for the ride home.

The next few days kind of ran together. I rested as much as I could and read several books. Thanks to everyone who gave me book suggestions before surgery. I had come home with a surgical drain to collect the fluid. On Thursday, I had an appointment with Dr. Kennedy to remove the drain. That went well and she said everything looked really good. As we were walking out of her office, Dr. Canter from UC Davis called with the BEST news. He said that pathology came back and he had gotten CLEAR MARGINS. I had been waiting to hear this since the day of surgery. There is no way to explain how much relief that Andy and I felt after this. He also said that the tumor was about 4.8cm. The other piece of good news that he gave us was that the sarcoma was a little less aggressive than they had originally thought. Overall, best case scenario all the way around!

I want to thank my family and friends who prayed, sent good vibes, came to visit me, brought/sent me amazing gifts, sent cards, checked in on me, and other things I'm probably forgetting. I went through quite the roller coaster of emotions and tried to stay positive. I'm not one that memorizes or knows a lot of Bible verses off the top of my head, but this one has always been my favorite. I relied on it very heavily, lately. Philippians 4:6 "Do not worry about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God."

Of course I would've rather not gone through this. But I am very proud of myself for how I handled everything. I prayed. I let myself feel all the emotions. I focused on keeping a positive attitude. I told family and friends that I love them. I planned for my absence in the office. I prepared for my recovery at home. I definitely MADE MYSELF PROUD!