Home again!

Hi, this is Mickey writing for Joan. She's still unable to sit at the computer, but wanted to update her blog. So she asked if I'd be her "guest host." She told me "anything you write will be fine." Yeah, right. 

Anyway, this past week was Surgery Week, and all in all things went pretty well (I can say that because I wasn't the one getting cut on). The surgery was on Tuesday and went for 4+ hours, and the surgeon was able to remove everything she was after...utereus, appendix, lymph nodes and a bunch of stuff I can't pronounce. Good news.. she did not have to resect the bowel! Recovery is definitely more of a challenge than with the first surgery...five days in the hospital (partially because her hemoglobin level wasn't right, and they couldn't come up with a pain management system that seemed to work for her). She came home last night, and is glad not to be eating hospital jello anymore.

The doctor said she didn't find anything that looked "concerning," so our next step is to wait for the pathologies this week (guess what we're asking Santa for this Christmas?). Then chemo starts sometime next month. 

Another thing that made this whole week a bit surreal was the storm we got slammed with. We got more than 20 inches of snow in one day, and it's still snowing off and on, so the city is pretty much paralyzed. It is certainly beautiful though,...looks like a winter wonderland...at least until you try to drive to the store. I had two feet of snow piled up on my car, and Jesse and Christian got the idea to turn it into a snow sculpture, and shaped it so it looked like a white shark with wheels. Such creative guys. 

Thanks to all of you out there who are following Joan's "adventure," and who have gone out of your way to show us your support and friendship. I would love to give you all a "shout out" of appreciation! 

I'm sure Joan will write more in the next few days.