sorry folks, I’ve kept a little secret – I am out of the hospital! Last week was a bit of a blur post-op. I have felt absolutely fantastic and have hardly needed even a Tylenol for pain. That part is kind of crazy. We busted me out last Tuesday night and I’ve been back and forth between my two friends’ houses. I’ve done some marathon sleeping – as in, that first night I didn’t wake up until noon the next day and still didn’t get out of bed for a few hours after that. I plead the fifth on how many other times that has happened since then. I did some baking on Saturday afternoon and that made me feel much more myself. I made some of my now world-renowned copycats of the Levain chocolate chip cookies as well as this salted caramel apple cheesecake pie from one of my and my niece Asher’s favorite baking bloggers. My friends’ friends and I all agreed it was worth making again for my guys when I get home. I also got back on some of my sewing projects while I’ve been out and today got to spend the day with my friend Angie’s friend (she was in charge of babysitting me while Angie was at work) who helped me make some throw pillows for my other friends. In other words, I’ve kept myself busy and entertained in those few hours I’ve been awake. HOWEVER, I hit my limit the other night and got very homesick. Texas has been extremely good to me but has run its course. I’m ready to go home.
Here’s the latest on where we stand. The blessing of how last week’s surgery went was this easy breezy recovery, going home sooner, and I still have all my ribs. The downside is, I still have that old rib. The culture came back from surgery with, of course, some weird, hard-to-kill bacteria. Currently, I am on two antibiotics for six weeks. There is a possibility they switch me to some different ones when the sensitivities come back. There is also a possibility that I need a pic line and have IV antibiotics for six weeks when I get home. I have my follow-up appointment with the plastic surgeon on Thursday morning and we will find out a bit more. I also have Wally back with me since surgery. He’s been tagging along for all these fun adventures. He has kept me up a few nights though and I am not happy with him about that. We have about decided that I will have the skin graft done by a doctor back home. The surgeons here all give him rave reviews – he trained out here – and they all say they would send their mom/sister/wife to him. I am warming up to this idea. It should be an outpatient procedure in a couple of weeks.
I have gotten SO MANY cards and care packages here at my friend’s house. Thank you all for sending me encouragement in the mail and via text. Even “now get your @$$ back home where you belong” from one friend has made me laugh, cry, and my heart swell all at once. I am rich beyond measure in the being loved department. I have done some drunk shopping while out here (some I can blame on anesthesia and post-op meds, but some I just have to say is my unhealthy coping mechanism of buying things on Etsy when I’m stressed and can’t sleep). Now we have to figure out how best to get some of my new treasures back home – I think a trip to the UPS store is in order! I will be flying with Angel Flight back home and my luggage weight is limited. Rumor has it I may be heading home on Saturday – but whatever you do, DON’T TELL my little G-man! He made me promise before I left not to tell him when I would be home because he wanted to be surprised (we did that once before and he LOVED it 🙂
Please continue to pray for healing and more good surprises. Pray these antibiotics kill this unwelcome visitor in my body and that it isn’t resistant to what I’m taking. Pray for these doctors’ wisdom. While I have told them this week that they are magicians, they are also still humans. I have spent a lot of time in doctors’ offices and hospitals over the past many years. I have had excellent care, some bad apples, and several situations where we have Monday morning quarterbacked it and wished things had been caught earlier and handled differently. Admittedly we have seen things over the past several years that were missed. A lot of conversations this week have been about how my case has been handled, whether it was mishandled, etc. “Was it malpractice?” was one of those questions. I’m not going to get into the details of that conversation but I do want to share the side of healthcare I see that many don’t.
I see doctors absolutely wearing themselves out trying to save people’s lives and make said lives better. These people are human, just like me. They have families with young children and go home to endure the same stresses I do on top of one of the most stressful jobs out there. Many of them have loved me and fought for me at my lowest and least likely to succeed points in life. They are the ones who lovingly call me a walking miracle. I have spent the past two weeks surrounded by a houseful of sleep-deprived surgical residents who, even when they aren’t operating are talking about cases (no HIPPA violations I promise) and surgical techniques in their personal time. I see these people’s hearts. They love what they do and for the majority of them, they are doing it to make the world a better place by constantly improving how they treat their patients. They are still humans and in the world of medicine, there are so many moving parts and variables that they cannot guarantee an outcome in any situation. Because of that, outside of gross negligence or a very blatant case of malpractice, I just can’t ever see myself going down that road. I couldn’t see myself potentially ruining someone else’s life over a mistake, mediocre judgement, or something that was/wasn’t done correctly but not out of ill-will. These folks are making hard judgment calls with very little time to make those decisions most of the time. I’m not sure exactly what made me feel like I needed to go running down that rabbit trail….. I guess I have two takeaways for you to ponder when thinking a doctor made a mistake: 1) these folks are human. give them grace. expecting perfection is unreasonable. mistakes happen and some things are just out of their control. sometimes the circumstances just don’t fall in your favor. 2) always advocate for yourself and never be afraid of getting a second, third, or even fourth opinion if something isn’t sitting well with you. it will either confirm what one or more doctors said or it will open a better door you didn’t know was available but were feeling the urge of hope that was there.
That’s all I have for tonight – oh, and I didn’t win the Powerball. Sorry, I was counting on having us all set up for life, but I guess my less than 1% chances of winning only come in having identical twin boys with blond hair and green eyes, and weird medical stuff going wrong with me! HA! Maybe next time 🙂 The next few days will be super busy for me as I wrap things up here. I will do my best to get you all updated this weekend when I hopefully make it back to Georgia – where my @$$ belongs 😉
Lesley
Cancermamma 