Surprise, Surprise!

Surprises in any project are often hard to predict or avoid. Once something unexpected occurs, you take a deep breath, gather all of your facts, make decisions and keep moving forward. That's what I did this week and it's only Tuesday.

I enjoyed Easter Brunch with my family. We even got my 90 year old Dad at the celebration, which was his first outing since he had pneumonia on March 5th and spent 10 days in the hospital and almost a month in rehab. It was good to see him.

I came home after the brunch and felt lousy. I was having sharp pains that I thought might be from the last drain, so I popped another pain pill having not taken any for a week or so. But even with the pain pill, I got very little sleep that night because I was so uncomfortable (did you know there are good movies on between 2:00am and 6:00am, I saw the Proposal, Jurassic Park, and Twister).

Larry and I went to our already scheduled appointment with Dr. Hatfield on Monday 4/25/11 to get the last drain pulled out, and also further inflate the expander. I had high hopes that with the drain out, I would feel better.
That's when the surprise knocked my project sideways.

By the time we arrived at the doctors office, the drain was full when it should not have been, and it was cloudy instead of clear. Both Larry and I were surprised since we had just drained it at 9:00am that morning when it looked fine, and it's was now 1:00 in the afternoon. The surgical area on my front side was also red and hot.

Crap, it was a bacterial infection. The Dr. sent samples off to the lab, and sent us over to Unity Hospital, while she scheduled an Operating Room (OR). She did not want to waste any time to surgically remove the expander, and clean out the area. This unexpected surgery put me back to where we were three weeks ago. One more night in the hospital, a fresh surgical wound, more pain meds and 2 antibiotics. This latest surgery will now delay my reconstruction until after my chemo and radiation therapies are complete, so only then will she start again. A bit of a bummer.

Larry thought he was on a lunch break when he took me to my appointment; needless to say, he never went back to work on Monday.

You know you're been in the hospital just a little to much when the nurses in the OR area know me on sight and by name. I had a nice visit with the surgical staff given I was the only one going in for surgery. Clearly, they don't schedule surgeries at night.

Ok, this was a temporary set back, I'll have to re-set the plan with the Doctors and keep moving forward. On Wednesday, we'll see what the oncologist has to say about this and discuss the scheduled treatment for me.

Keep those thoughts and prayers coming my way, I don't want any other set-backs or surprises.