Barb is doing quite well and is home. Here is her note from today:

There's no place like home, Dorothy!!

I actually cried on the ride home. You know things could not have gone better for me during and after surgery, but I will not lie to you that the two weeks leading up to it were the worst nightmare I have ever been through. Just the not knowing and waiting have been the most horrible part of this all. Anyway, I am home right now and have just devoured a Casual Clam Greek Salad. I hope I don't live to regret that. I have had nothing but a liquid diet since the night before surgery. I just wanted a salad and no meat.

Now, all of the weird info and questions. They already took off all of my dressings. I have a caved in hole in my right chest. However, I do have cleavage. The cleavage is from the top part of my chest and the hole is from the mastectomy. I have two drainage tubes coming out, one of which they will remove already on Tuesday. This is way soon according to all of the earlier information I had. I am glued together, they don't really do stitches. I have on my new camisole, so from outward appearances, I look the same. It is comfortable to wear. I can't do any showering or water until Tuesday, so I just wear my camisole and house dresses. My pain is like someone hit me or if I worked out too hard at the gym. I am taking a Vicodin every six hours, when needed. Nothing at all compared to the broken back. I can use the computer and do anything where my arm goes no higher than a 90 degree angle, this week. Next week, I am to do exercises to raise my arm at or above my head level. After that, it is up to occupational therapy. I have home health care and occupational therapy starting tomorrow.

The hospital experience was as good as it can get while being in the hospital. My poor roommate was a young girl with a 7-year-old daughter. She was sick the whole time we were there. She had surgery the same time as I did and she is not able to go home tonight as she is running a fever. She is not doing that well. She was there with her husband and mother-in-law. She has had a rough time of it during chemo also. I can't imagine going through all of this with a young child at home too.

So, for the next few days, I am taking a rest and nursing myself into a strong and healed person. Home health care will be here. Starting Monday, John will go back to work and I have a group of nurses (girlfriends) who have offered to come and help if I need it. I am thinking I won't. It sure is nice having my peeps. I feel as if I have been on a long and tiring trip and now I just want peace and quiet and time to collect my thoughts and heal my body.

So, it will be an early good night, but I just wanted to write my letter and let you know how everything went. "Barb's Law of Inverse Proportions": The amount of worry and stress that a person puts into fear of the unknown is inversely proportional to the amount of time that should have been spent in worry and doubt. I would have been much better off spending all of that time on some other thing that could have used all of that wasted time and energy. Just repeat this to me at the next crisis I have.

Love you all and thank you for all of your answered prayers.

Love, me

And thanks to all of you guys who have added Barb to your prayers and kind thoughts. I may be an organized religion drop-out and a cranky cynic, but I will never argue about the power of prayer, positive thinking, and of course, (most of all) love.

~ell