(Push the play button above for today’s mood music — this is my dancing-when-no-one-is-looking song)

Friends and Family, 

I was released from the hospital before lunch this morning, on schedule and without major complications.  Dr. Kendrick shared that I had a reaction to the antibiotic that was administered during surgery, however, after a dose of Benedryl I was back in business.

The good news is this….we were prepared for up to four procedures this morning depending on what Dr. Kendrick was seeing as he began, we only ended up needing two; a total hysterectomy, and the extraction of both sentinel lymph nodes in that area — as a precautionary measure.  A preliminary biopsy was conducted on everything that was removed today with a great result….no invasive cancer to report.  The next step is to meet with Dr. Kendrick next week to obtain the Final Biopsy result.

Out Takes / Things we Thought Were Funny

• There were three different teams on my case (anesthesia, surgery and prep folks) all of which would roll into my room before surgery asking the same basic questions.  One thing they do every time is ask you to repeat back to them what procedure is going to be done today.  We thought it would be hilarious to tell team 2 and 3 that we were there for breast augmentation, simply to see the look on their faces.  Fear not, we did not do this (see I can act my age!)

• When I was about to be wheeled in to the operating room one of the nurses looked up at Patrick and said “OK, time for final hugs and kisses” at which time I said “but you barely know each other”.  They laughed, I was proud of my quick thinking.

• My main nurse went to lunch yesterday and her stand in was on call when I rang for some pain medication.  This nurse went above and beyond by not only giving me morphine (there are two other non narcotic options for pain), but also came packing a cherry popsicle.  I told Patrick when the main nurse came back I was going to tell her that “that nice lady gave me Morphine + Popsicles, how can you top that?”  We did not do this one either.

As you can see, despite the serious occasion we did find some ways to lighten it up a bit.  I will be on heavy pain medications over the next week or so, dialing down to over the counter medications for the long haul.

Thank you once again for your prayers and warm wishes.  I’ll check in again next week with an update on that final lab test.

Wishing you love, hugs and dancing days (ain’t nothing wrong with that),

Dawn