Mother's Day '08 & Updates...

Hoping all the mothers out there had a great Mother's Day!

• My mother being here would have made this Mother Day, the day it should have been for me.  It's been three year's worth of Mother's Days without her.  R.I.P Mom.
  
• I slept in this morning, which is odd because I should be caught up on sleep as I've had an abundance of sleep and rest over the last week!
• To my surprise T woke me up with an amazing bouquet of tropical flowers and a nice gift set from The Body Shop. I received calls and text messages from family, and friends I hadn't heard from in awhile.
• C took me and T to the Brazilian Steakhouse, Texas De Brazil for lunch - amazing!  I usually overdose on meat, however since the surgery my appetite hasn't been totally normal so I didn't enjoy the full benefit. 
  
• Another damper is that I'm still dragging this drain around under my arm!  I was so psyched to have it removed on Friday.  I met with my Surgeon, Dr. M and she burst my bubble, saying it was too soon to have it out, since there is still too much drainage from the removal of the lymph nodes under my right armpit. She could see the disenchantment in my face when she told me it would probably be Tuesday before she could remove it.  She asked what was wrong - I wanted to say "WOMAN, YOU ATTACHED PLASTIC TUBING AND A DAMN DRAIN PUMP UNDER MY ARM!"  "IT'S FOREIGN, IT DOESN'T BELONG THERE, THAT'S WHAT THE F*UCK IS WRONG!" Instead, I just said "Well, its awkward and uncomfortable and I was hoping to not have to deal with it Mother's Day weekend. With a long sleeve shirt on, it goes unnoticed, so that's good.  I understand the need for it to remain due to the fluid needing to drain from that area, if the drain isn't there it will settle in my arm causing a condition called Lymphedema - which would definitely not be a good look.
• The Friday visit wasn't all useless - she reviewed my Pathology report which she indicated was very good. The tumor was small 1.9 CM, my margins are all clear, of the 18 lymph nodes under my armpit, cancer had only spread from the breast to 2 of them - which she removed.   Both breast and lymph node incisions are healing nicely.   I am considered Stage 2, which falls under the "early detection" category.  One thing I wasn't looking forward to hearing was that I have to receive Chemotherapy, then Radiation Therapy which I already understood would be for 6 weeks. The Chemo was up in the air.   She referred me to a Medical Oncologist, which I should be meeting with sometime this week.
• Back to work tomorrow, which is kind of good - I need my routine as much as it gets on my nerves!