Gone tooooo long…..

Oh my goodness, the time has just gone by so quickly.  First off I want to thank EVERYONE for being sooo kind and thoughtful and keeping me in all of your prayers.  PRAYER is so powerful and I felt the love from family and friends.

As you know by now, surgery on October 2nd was quite the event!  A little recap and please forgive me…journaling for posterity may be boring to some!

Enter the hospital at 7:45.  Go to admission.  Sit in the waiting room.  Wait for only 15 minutes.  Get called back into dressing room.  Get in pretty blue and white gown.  UH OH, stomach is starting to growl.  I am hungry.  Too bad.  Girl comes in, asks me my name and BD.  Takes my vitals.  Does an EKG on me.  Says my heart is in great shape. (well that’s good, what if it hadn’t been could I have gone home?).  Asks which arm I want the needle stuck in.  I tell her, good luck no one can ever find a vein but I am sure you can since you WORK in the hospital.  NOPE can’t find a vein in my arms.  I am sure I have one….they are just deep.  OK, I give you permission to stick it in the top of my hand.  She is very gentle and good.  It pricked only a little.  HUGE TEARS WELL UP IN MY EYES.  Not because it hurt, but because I am finally realizing this is the point of no return.  Huhoney, gets tears in his eyes too. (I should have had him take pictures of the whole thing..but I didn’t really think of it until now LOL)  We wait.  She asks if I have to potty.  YEAH.  come back to my little cubby.  NO I don’t want to watch tv thank you.  We wait some more.  In comes the doctor and goes over the procedure.  He anticipates about a 2 or 3 hour surgery.  In comes the anesthesiologist.  He says I will start to feel sleepy.  OK, no problem.  “WOW THIS IS GOOD STUFF, WHAT ARE YOU GIVING ME, HONEY THIS IS REALLY GOOD STUFF, I LIKE THIS STUFF, WHAT IS THIS STUFF”? they start wheeling me down the hall, “YEAH WOW WHOOOO I AM FEELING REALLY GOOD” (Huhoney says that I wouldn’t shut my mouth, I kept telling them how good I was feeling all the way down the hall to surgery, he is behind me calling out “I LOVE YOU HONEY, EVERTHING WILL BE OK….” and I am just rambling on  “OK HONEY, WOW, THIS IS GOOD STUFF, WHAT DID YOU GIVE ME, YEAH I AM FEELING GOODDDDDDDDDDDDD…..” Can you get on this other bed for us Linda….”SURE” I AM FEELING GOOD!”, here says the nurse, lets put this pretty little blue cap over your hair….OK…(I think in the background they are going to try and hurry and shut me up….) THEN ALL OF A SUDDEN…LIGHTS OUT.  I didn’t wake up until around 6 when I was in my room.  The surgery took 7 long hours.  Yep the 2 hour surgery ended up an all day-er.  Over 50 tumors were removed.  He stopped counting he said.  He was an excellent surgeon who called in 2 other surgeons after 3 hours.  All went well.  They did not remove all of the tumors.  They were just too deep and didn’t want to disturb the main nerve to my face.  Nice of them don’t you think?  I still have full function on my facial nerves.  My ear lobe is numb and probably will never regain its feeling.  Not a biggie.  My face along my chin is numb, that may come back after time.  I actually asked the surgeon (who is also a plastic surgeon) to suck some of the extra fat out from under my chin….but he didn’t.  Oh well.  No extra nip and tuck.  Even though he filleted my face back.  I looked pretty bad the first several days.  But I am back to my old self once again.  Good ole pain killers helped for the first week or so.  Work was still there waiting for me. (sigh) life is the same.  life is good.  All is well.  Because they did not remove all the tumors and these are benign tumors (thank goodness) they will still continue to grow.  Can we prevent the growth.  YES, we can.  But I would have to be treated with radiation therapy.  I am weighing the options and praying for the right resolve as to what to do.  A lot to think about over the next couple of months as I heal.  I will let you know what we decide.  So much to think about. this pic is the day I went home (2nd day) and there was a tube in my next for drainage.  GROSS HUH.  NOT a pretty picture.  The drain was left in for 3 days then removed.

still have my smile and no droopy eye or mouth!

and today….not so bad huh!

I AM SOOOOO BLESSED!

Once again….thank you ALL for your prayers and well wishes!