The Hair Starts to Go!

Um, I'm starting to lose my hair. Yuck. It's just yucky. So far, it hasn't been large clumps, but rather several hairs if I run my hand through my hair, but I know it's a sign of things to come. Listen, in the scheme of things there are so many things worse than losing one's hair, aren't there? And really, this is not going to be a lifelong thing- several months at most. So, I can live with it. Plus, my husband says it's just another look he can live me in. Isn't he the sweetest??? I do love him!

Today I slept until 8:30 and once I shook off the sleep, felt pretty good most of the day. Pete is on vacation this week and because we can't go anywhere, he has plans to get a few things done around the house. He tackled repainting our deck and staircase. I started to get tired of playing Tetris and meandered outside to chat and it looked like fun (see what being housebound will do to you??) so I changed my clothes and went out and helped! It was fun in a weird way. It just felt good to be doing something useful and to be spending time with my husband. We finished all the railing, which I think is the hardest part. Tomorrow, Pete will sand the flat surface of the deck and I'll tape of parts of the stairway and we'll finish 'er up! Oh, I also walked twice today; 30 minutes this morning and 20 minutes this evening. It's an attempt at increasing my strength so I'll be in better shape when I go back to work.

Now that I have you up-to-date, let's go back in time to the Monday before my surgery. We were packed and ready to go and left the house around 9:00am. Rana met us here and had a fantastic "hospital survival kit" for Pete complete with food, reading materials and games. She's the best! Got to the surgeon's office a bit early, which was good. We had been warned to be patient in the waiting room as there were several people that had been worked in at the last minute, just as we had. But because we got there so early, we were the first or second people to go in. We met with Kate and she was so reassuring. She has such a wonderful positive energy about her and she said there was a chance that I might not have cancer. I was so hopeful! She did advise she was going to have to do a vertical incision and was very apologetic about it. I thought that was sweet.

Next, we had to go to the hospital to have some lab work done. There, another gal (her name was Gail) that we had seen in Kate's waiting room came in and we started talking. Turns out she grew up in and still lives in Fresno (where I grew up), She grew up on the corner of Fancher Creek Rd and Lane Ave. My grandfather lived on Lane, maybe about half a block down the street from her. She said she knew him. What kind of coincidence is that??? Now she and her partner, Kelly, live about a block and a half from my mom's old house, where I grew up. We had a really nice chat. I also found out that she and her partner have an ob/gyn practice in Fresno. They reassured me that with regard to tumors, "bigger is better". Gail had some sort of growth in her abdomen as well. I worry about her now, since Kate told me I have the best prognosis of anyone she operated on that day.  There was just something about that whole encounter that felt like God was telling me that everything was going to be okay. I can't put my finger on it, but sometimes isn't that the way the Holy Spirit works?

After checking in at the hotel, we went and had a rather awful meal at IHOP. I was not able to eat any grain, only proteins basically (per doctor's orders), so IHOP seemed appropriate. That night at about 8:00 I began the "clean out" regimen. This is always fun. The last time I had to do this was when I had my colonoscopy and I think I got dehydrated in the process. So this time I chose an option that included putting laxative in a huge container of Gatorade, thinking that would help. It probably did help. However, in the middle of the night when the liquid stream turned the fruit punch color of the Gatorade, it freaked me out! I thought I was bleeding internally! Thankfully, my husband had his wits about him!

Tomorrow, I'll tell you about the day of surgery that really turned into 2 days.

Until then...