Sorry this took so long...

I know I swore that I would keep up on this, but I got busy the day before the surgery and afterword I was busy/tired/not in the mood.  I don't have a good excuse really, so I'm just gonna have to plead cancer and surgery and hope you all let me off the hook :)

I was going to start with the preop appt and take you all through day by day but I think that would take a while and I'd be repeating some stuff so I'm going to summarize. 

The preop appt went well. My doctor and her team are fabulous. I am in VERY good hands and I count myself very lucky to have the medical team in my corner that I do have. This all happened so fast so there was not any time for me to do any research or choose any of my doctors and I'm just so thankful that I got dropped where I did.

The PET scan showed the tumor and that the 2 lymph nodes closest to it were involved.  The plan was to make an incision from my belly button to my pelvic bone, take out those lymph nodes, any others in the area (she ended up taking quite a few) take out my ovaries and tubes since radiation would fry them anyways and she's already in there, biopsy the rest of my lymph nodes up to my chest, my bladder, and anything else in the area that might be involved. How far it had spread was the biggest concern and we have since gotten the results back that those 2 lymph nodes that showed up on the PET scan were the only ones and everything else is clear!  (VERY good news)

I had a really crappy night before the surgery. I was supposed to drink this laxative stuff that turned out to be carbonated so I ended up throwing up as well as going #2 all night. Nothing to drink after midnight so I was pretty dehydrated by the time I got there at 12:30 for my 3pm surgery.

They had a real hard time finding a vein for the IV. I did have to have general anesthesia this time, though they were going to put in an epidural for pain management after the fact. The epidural didn't go well. It hurt real bad going in, to the point of my screaming in the OR, and as many can attest, I'm pretty damn pain tolerant when it comes to my back.  The surgery lasted about 4 hours. After it was over, I woke up and they turned on the epidural and one small circle on my thigh went numb.  That was it.  The anesthesiologist kept jiggling it and putting in more meds, but I still hurt QUITE a bit and that spot on my thigh just kept getting number. We all finally gave up, they took it out, and  gave me the morphine button in my IV. It worked so I was happy.

I didn't hate the hospital as much as I thought I would.  I didn't feel real well the first day after. Turned out my iron level was real low so they gave me a liter of blood.  It wasn't much better the next day so they gave me another one. Apparently that first day I gave new meaning to the word pale.  I found out my veins don't hold up very well to IV's. They seem to be good for 1 use only so I have quite a few bruised holes all up and down my arms.  Everyone in the hospital was incredibly kind and compassionate however. They were very busy but were all very good at their jobs and very helpful.

I got stitches instead of staples which made me happy. I can shower which makes me REALLY happy. They let me go home Saturday afternoon. The ride home was pretty hellish. The nice people at the ferry saw my hospital bracelets and let us jump in line instead of making the 90 minute wait which was also a big bonus.

Doin pretty good now. Still a bit sore, but I'm off the narcotics already. Trying to walk as much as possible but I get tired pretty fast still. Had my dad drop off my COBRA check to my old job. I don't know if you all heard but when I called my job and let them know I have the cancer they let me go.  Way to kick me when I'm down eh?  I've kind of come to terms with it though. Feces occurs. Quite a bit these days it seems, but it all definitely could have been much worse.

I have my meet and greet with my radiation doctor tomorrow at 10:45. I'll do my best to write how that goes tomorrow.  Thank you for all the prayers and well wishes and cards and the love sent my way. I appreciate it so very much, and am very glad that you all are still talking to me, like a human even, not like I've got the plague :)  Love you all, I'll try to keep in tough, you all do as well.