Recovery

So yesterday Mom underwent her almost eight hour surgery.  It was a pretty big deal and I am glad to say she is recovering well and the surgery went well!  Dad was pretty much a nervous wreck, forgetting things and a little on edge while Mom seemed to cope a little better, but still a little nervous.  There were two parts to this surgery.  The first was to go in, remove the breast, and figure out what was going on with the cancer.  We were all hoping and praying that they would find the cancer gone and she would be on the way to recovery and overcoming all this.  Unfortunately this was not the case.  They found  more cancer in additional lymph nodes that showed positive for cancer.  Those will be sent off somewhere to determine whether they are alive or dead cells.  Either way she will need to continue with chemotherapy.  I do not want to be the one to tell her this as she has already been through quite a lot, and while she has barely complained through it all, this is not good news.  We are hoping that the cancer will be dead and she will do a few more sessions of chemo and then be done.  If alive, there will be different options and things they will try, but for obvious reasons we don't talk a lot about this option because it is too emotional for all of us to deal with right now.  They say it will take about a week to get the results back.  

The second part of the surgery was the reconstruction part.  They took tissue and other materials from her stomach and were planning on rebuilding the breast with this.  So she got a free tummy tuck in the process.  The only problem was that they took out so much material during the first surgery that they did not have enough from her stomach to totally rebuild, so they did the best they could but she will probably have to have another surgery if she desires in the future to make everything look "normal".  

I have not had a chance to speak with her yet as she has spent much of her time resting, but I have talked to Dad a few times.  He has been so wonderful and stayed by her side and really taken good care of her.  Anyone would be lucky to have someone like that love them so much and put everything aside for this.  He has really appreciated and looked forward to the calls he has received as he has spent much of his time waiting around and not doing much while Mom went through surgery and is now resting. He says it makes the time go by faster. Thank you so much for all of your prayers.  I can honestly say that we have all felt them and have been comforted through all of this.  I will continue to update as I am informed of information.