The First Big Day

Well today was the first of what I will guess will be a number of big days.  Janet and I got to the hospital at 6:45 as instructed, checked in, went to radiology as instructed and were promptly told we were an hour early.  Thanks to check in person in radiology making a few phone calls, she tracked down that we were really supposed to be in outpatient surgery.  So back downstairs we headed.  We checked in, got situated in the outpatient surgery room and began the wait.  Janet was taken up to radiology (the glow farm) so she could have the dye put in for surgery.  She excused me (per the last post) so I bailed for a couple of hours.  I got back to find her watching "Live Free or Die Hard" on her iPhone.

At about 11:15 the doctor came in and said she was ready to go.  At 11:30 they took her off to surgery.  The pager went off around 2:00 which kind of startled me because I was still sitting in the same spot - the room.  A trip to the nurses station later they told me to go back to the room that Dr. Beckman would be in to see me in a bit which she did.

So the good part.  The surgery went very well.  She was able to remove the tumor, the margins and two nodes.  The pathology results for the two nodes came back negative and there was no need for drainage.  We hope to have the final pathology on the tumor, margins and lymph nodes by mid week.  Janet's follow up with Dr. Beckman and her oncologist is on Thursday.  I am sure we get get more information then (like staging etc.) because for now this is all we have.

We left the hospital around 4:00 and are now home where Janet is resting comfortably (she opted for the bed instead of her first choice of the coach as to not be bothered by the dogs).  We are very thankful for all the thoughts, prayers and kind messages we have gotten over the past few weeks.  We understand we are at the beginning of a journey - we are very thankful to have great friends and family like you to help us down the path.