Last Thursday, I met with Dr. Kobayashi and he removed the last drain - you can not believe the sense of freedom by having that thing gone (it's a bag attached to your body to collect fluids from the surgery that has to be drained daily, ugh).
Friday morning I woke up and washed my own hair (in a sink, but who cares) and got cleaned up, put on a dress and make up and waited for my sister, Barbara, to arrive with my mother for lunch. Monica Mueller, Mike's daughter joined us, and the four of us had a wonderful time. Great to see my mother and I know she felt a huge relief seeing her daughter up and doing so well. We had lots of fun hearing about Monica's plans for her first year of college this fall at Colorado College in Colorado Springs. We all felt like it would be soooooo fun to be 18 again and off to college.
Sunday was a great day, with a visit from Becky and Kevin Day who drove from their summer house in Carlsbad to Laguna to see us. The four of us, Kevin, Becky, Mike and I, had lunch at the St. Regis. Yes, that's the Pacific ocean behind Becky and me! Mike and I should have asked them the secret to marriage, since it has been 28 years ago that I was in their wedding! I have known Becky since high school and Kevin since grade school, lots of great history between us.
I met with Dr. K again yesterday, and his reassurance was a huge relief, so today I feel like a new person. His positive attitude is absolutely infectious! It is definitely contagious. Am I starting to sound like a doctor yet? I had not updated the blog because I was concerned about the pain in my right arm because I could not raise it past my hip. This lack of movement happens because the lymph nodes (7) were removed and nerves were cut. Nobody tells you much about the arm thing.
Yesterday Dr. K explained my fears away. What has happened is that when the nerves are cut, the signal in your brain indicates pain, but what's happening with your arm is not really pain, but kind of like when your arm falls to sleep. My current therapy is to retrain my arm and brain by moving it and doing exercises to get the nerves to send the right message to my brain. So, now I am moving it like crazy and although it feels strange, I am just simply waking up my arm.
Mike could have told me the same thing since he went thru this with his hip, but you know it seems more real to hear it from the doc. Plus, there is a threat, if I don't get this arm moving by this Thursday, then they will put me in physical therapy which I do NOT want...those guys are mean. Since Mike is experimenting with blogs he wanted to include his hip video. No, I won't be uploading my exercise video anytime soon!
I have an appointment this coming Monday August 10th with a new doctor, Dr. Rita Mehta who is a hematologist/oncologist, where she will determine the follow-up cancer treatment. Like my favorite soap opera, All My Children, stay tuned for the next update! Not sure what that will bring, but whatever....I feel so happy to have come this far and doing so well.
Love to all. xoxoxokd
