Until today, the right arm had never* been above the head. The surgeon said it was okay so that’s almost all she does. Loretta is thrilled. I’m a little embarrassed. She was quite the sight on the boat ride home. *After surgery, that is.
Author Archives: Scott Stanton
But wait, there’s more….
We had a nice chat with the surgeon. She explained the pathology report from all the stuff they took out during the surgery. It was all the same stuff that she had explained to Loretta over the phone. The new part was that they had had a conference (“they” are all the doctors of various specialties) and they decided that some more needed to come out. Yeah haw! More surgery. The best part of this otherwise bad news is that it will be after she is allowed to recover from the chemo – whenever that is. This one should also be much less invasive and not involve a drain, etc.
Then there is the weird thing going on with her skin (see Vanna, I’d like to buy a vowel). The surgeon, being a specialist in cancer, was concerned that maybe it was cancer exhibiting itself in very strange ways. It is very unlikely, but, since the cancer was found in the skin, it concerned her. Enough that she wanted some. So, using the most expensive hole punch known to man, she got another piece of Loretta and sent it off to the lab. We should have results from that tomorrow or Wednesday.
Next are the scans (bone and cat) with results for those ready on Wednesday when we meet with the oncologist.
Let the drinking begin!
Not that kind of drinking. Not as much fun and MUCH more expensive. She has to drink a liter of this contrast material. It is clear and tasteless. (Like me except for the clear part.)
Scanday Morning
On the way to have some scans (looking for bones and cats — I could have told them she has bones and no cats on the phone! — and a chat with a doctor or three. Exciting updates all day (I’m just going to be sitting there)!
Chilly Hilly Went By
We have a front-row seat for the Chilly Hilly. Three boats full of cyclists. The scene below went on for 15 minutes for each boat. There was a steady stream the rest of the time. I hope they all found their way home…
Blogging with Robodog
Robodog with Xray eyes no less. She sees all (food).
Loretta’s Saturday
I thought I would update you all on Loretta’s condition….
She’s doing fine. Of course, that isn’t good enough for her. She would rather be taking 4 mile walks and baking and planning some poor client’s demise for the upcoming week. Instead, she felt okay in the early morning but went downhill with nausea and general weakness. This was really foreign to her so she called the surgical team’s resident on call. Turns out it was the resident that saw Loretta first last Friday when we went in to meet the team and create a treatment plan.
The resident, Laura, is a cute and very personable 26ish newly minted MD who is doing all her rotations in various disciplines while she works towards her goal of being a plastic surgeon specializing in hands. She was the first one to see Loretta at SCCA and was there for the surgery. She called Loretta back immediately after Loretta left the message to contact her. The story was much the same as what I had been telling her – she was under general anesthesia for four hours and that takes a toll. Also, since Loretta is so active, the normal recovery time seems so much longer and harder to her.
At the end of the call she was reassured that everything was okay as long as she continued to feel better. And she does. She felt better today than she felt on Friday. Tomorrow I expect her to actually want to take a walk. I’m hoping that she also gets some sleep tonight. Sleep has been particularly difficult for her.
So, the bottom line is: she is recovering and getting better and stronger every day. Pain from the surgery isn’t a problem (Tylenol is all she has taken and she didn’t take any today). She got a shower this evening (what an adventure that was!) so she’s even kinda clean. She is asleep now and hopefully will stay that way until 6 or 7 tomorrow morning.
Tomorrow I will try to get her to post something here. Your response to this blog and to her battle has been amazing, humbling, and entertaining. All of your comments are read and appreciated very much so keep them coming. Thank you all.
New and Improved
This is not about Loretta or any of her parts so if you are looking for pictures, you are in the wrong corner of the Internet. No, this is about an exciting new feature of this blog called an RSS feed. If you’ve never used an RSS feed, it is like a bookmark that you add to your browser that shows the last 10 posts on the blog. You won’t have to go to the blog anymore to see if there are updates. It’s easy to set up:
There is a button on the left side of this page (any page on this blog) that is orangy and is in the RSS section:
Click it. Then, click the Subscribe Now button:
A bookmark will be added to your browser. Click the bookmark and it will show you a list of the last 10 blog entries. Click any one of those and it will take you to that entry. Now you are an RSS master!
If you are using Google Chrome it won’t work. Google doesn’t include a feed reader in Chrome though there are some plug-ins available to do that. Why? I don’t know. Maybe to limit cannibalization of their stand-alone feed reader. Silly, if you ask me.
Funniest Moment From the Last Two Days
I think it is important to find the humor in situations – all situations – because if you aren’t laughing you might be crying. And laughing, I have been told, is a great work out so if I’m going to get any exercise I might as well enjoy it, too. So, I look for the funny things. Like this:
Our good friend Eileen offered to take care of Twix (our dog) while we were playing at the hospital. Twix is a city dog now which means that everything she does outside is on a leash attached to a human. She has to go outside several times a day so she can “do her business”. Eileen did a stellar job of taking her out twice during the day, as we requested. We would be home to feed her and take care of her the rest of the night.
Well, it didn’t turn out that way. I arranged for my son and his wife to come over feed and spend the night with the dog while Loretta and I enjoyed a night in Seattle. Eileen didn’t get that message. This was totally my fault – I thought she knew she was released from dog duty when the two walks were completed.
The next morning (early because Eileen is like that) Eileen read on this very blog that we were spending the night. She immediately panicked and thought that she had abandoned the dog and expected the dog to have made a mess of the place. So she rushed over with cleaning supplies (because she is like that) to save the dog. When she opened the door to our place the dog was right there to great her. This is normally bad because we prevent the dog from getting to the front door with a gate that Eileen thought she had forgotten to put up. She put Twix on a leash and took her out for the morning business meetings.
Meanwhile, immediately above the front door, David (our son) wakes up thinking he heard the door open. He heard the sound of the dog (tags tinkling as she ran) go down the stairs. Soon, he could hear the faint sound of the dog outside moving away from the house.
Rachel (his wife) wakes up and asks what is going on. “I think someone just stole the dog,” he said as he was looking out the window, seeing nothing.
“Don’t worry about it. Whoever stole her will realize what a pain she is and bring her back,” replied Rachel. They both went back to sleep.
After the dog did her thing Eileen was starting to take her on a little stroll when she realized that she had forgotten to lock the door so she hurried back to our house. When she got there, she noticed that there were shoes on the steps heading up stairs so she knew there must be someone there. She backed out of the house, locked the door and left.
The dog, fresh from a walk and now probably hungry for breakfast, goes into the room where David and Rachel are and wakes them up. “See, I told you they would bring her back.”
In her own bed
(Sleeping. Don’t tell her I took the picture.)
