What the hell happened back there? (Part 5)

I've been trying to remember everything that I can from the surgery.  Just so I can get it down, and then I'm sure the memory will eventually fade.  So here's what I remember from last week.

(Note: This is Part 5.  If you want to read the previous entries, click here for part 1 or here for part 2 or here for part 3 or here for part 4.)

Monday, November 16
Monday was my "breakthrough" day.  I slept well in my private room, and woke up feeling good.  My doctors came to check on me, and told me that I had three goals for the day: get the IV out, get the catheter out, and get up and moving.  I was eager to get going, and soon my nurse had the IV and the catheter removed.  Other than the 5 drains, I was unencumbered, and ready to get out of bed. 


First order of business was getting to the bathroom so I could go on my own.  With some help from my awesome nurse Celeste, we accomplished that.  Then I sat in a chair for a while.  By the time Ian showed up on Monday morning, I was sitting up in a chair, waiting for him.  And with the morphine removed, I was starting to become less dopey.


I spent most of Monday trying to get up for a while, taking a short walk out of my room and partially down the hall, and then going back to bed.  I was proud of myself and feeling good.


Monday afternoon, I made a video blog entry (remember this one?).  Many of you have commented that I seemed pretty dopey in that video, and yeah, I guess I did.  But seriously, that was progress!  I was feeling good when I made that video!  


I had a sad moment on Monday though.  Late in the evening, when everyone had left except for Ian, I started to cry.  I don't know why.  I was just overwhelmingly sad.  No particular reason - I wasn't in pain or anything... I was just really sad.  So I cried for a bit.  After a while, it passed, and I listened to my iPod some more, and eventually fell asleep.


Everything from Monday on is already on this blog.  I started writing blog posts Tuesday morning, so you can read those to see how I was doing (starting here). 


In summary, I think the first four days were hell on wheels, but by Monday/Tuesday following the surgery (I had the first operation on Thursday), I was really starting to feel better.  And once my head cleared, I adopted a positive outlook, and have honestly been feeling really good since.  That doesn't mean it's not hard, and there haven't been moments of tiredness, exhaustion, sadness, etc.  But overall, I feel good, I'm looking forward to when I'm totally recovered, and I am 100% without-a-doubt positive that this was the right thing to do.  Oh, and I'm also really pleased with how I look.  The scars are gross, and will still take time to heal, but I think I look great.  I love my foobies.  My spectacular, cancer-free, natural-feeling, gorgeous foobies.