Thursday, for realsies

I was told yesterday that I should count on not having surgery today. So today I woke up, got ready in the normal way, made myself a nice breakfast of a banana and a bowl of cereal, and then the phone rang. "Dr. Skinner wants to get you in this afternoon." Wha?? "But you can't eat anything." Too late. I seriously considered offering to try to throw it up, but decided against it. So they asked anesthesiology what they thought, and they don't feel comfortable doing this with food in my stomach. Dang it! If I had slept in 10 more minutes this morning, and I could be getting rid of this cancer today.

So now the surgery is on Thursday, for realsies. My dear, sweet fiance is celebrating a Big Birthday that day, so I said my gift to him is an excuse to take the day off of work, and instead spend the day in a hospital waiting room, and then caring for a groggy Johanna. (No putting on a cute dress and going out to dinner that night, though. Oh well.) He said my real birthday present to him is a cancer-free fiance, which is about the best gift he can imagine. Hopefully his cancer-free fiance will also be able to attend his birthday party this weekend. Maybe we can just prop me up in a comfortable seat for the night, and not make me move.

I am told the recovery for this is pretty quick. The nurse thought about three days later, I'd feel fine. (Which brings us to Sunday, and the dilemma of whether or not to take Sunday off...) I asked how long after surgery we would start radiation. She said usually they wait 6 weeks (!). That puts me starting radiation in November, and continuing into mid-December. Merry Christmas - here's your health, all wrapped up in a radiation burned and fatigued body! Advent programming this year might need to be somewhat less...