[Editor’s Note:  At some point in her life, Therese began referring to our parents as “Tom” and “Cheryl” when discussing them with others.  (When directly addressing them, she still uses “Dad” and “Mom,” respectively. 50% of the time.)  To correct this would alter the tone of this entry, so we’re leaving it as is.  Sorry Tom and Cheryl. This is from two days ago.]

This morning was better with more energy, less pain, and less tightness in my chest (as compared to yesterday, on average). Within two hours though I had a bad headache, the pain was back, my energy was down, and the tightness in my chest returned.  I thought the pain would be the worst part of the recovery, but actually I think it’s the tightness in my chest.  It’s hard to explain, but it’s like I can’t get a full breath; it’s pretty unnerving.  But apparently this is normal.

My aunt and uncle happened to be in town and came over to visit, which was really nice of them.  My aunt is a breast cancer survivor and shared aspects of her experience that I had never heard before, which meant a lot to me.  Going through this surgery without cancer was scary enough; I can’t imagine going through this after being diagnosed with cancer.

Highlight of the day: Tom Fox’s arrival.  Now I have a doctor and a nurse taking care of me.    We went out for a short walk (aka shuffle, with me looking like Randy from ‘A Christmas Story’ when his mom bundles him up to walk to school) of about twelve blocks. Once we got home, I started feeling not so hot: pressure, pain, headache. Plus now there’s this weird tingling sensation across the chest area. You know that feeling you get after your foot has fallen asleep and is starting to regain blood flow where it feels like pins and needles are all over your skin? It feels like that. I consulted Dr. Fox (hi Tom) who said that it’s normal as there are still nerve endings in there which were jostled a bit by increased activity.

My mom sent this picture out to a text chain that my family (parents, 5 kids, son & 2 daughters-in-law) has going with the caption, “My Lively Companions”…Cheryl and her jokes

I feel like my recovery has kind of been like a sine graph (nerd alert)…not too shabby then terrible and miserable and I want to go sleep. In general though, I think my recovery has been better than the average. I have pretty decent movement of the arms, even from the shoulders (less T-Rex arms than expected) and I have more ‘not too shabby’ moments than unbearable.  Yesterday I started to wean off the narcotics, switching off every three hours between Hydrocodone and 600 mg of ibuprofen. Every six hours I take an antibiotic  and in the evenings I take benadryl to help me sleep. It’s incredibly important (as stressed to me by everyone) to stay ahead of the pain so my alarm is set for every three hours, even during the night. I also was able to remove this Scopolamine patch from behind my right ear, which the anesthesiologist put on pre-surgery as a way to prevent nausea. I have my first follow-up appointments with both surgeons on Tuesday and am hoping I can get two of the drains removed.