I feel soooo much better

Fortunately, yesterday morning the nurse took out one of the drains (what a weird feeling that was). Unfortunately it didn't help with the pain in my side. I spent all day yesterday in such pain, I could hardly move. Last night I went to bed, moved wrong, and couldn't move at all. OMG, the pain was incredible! On a scale from 1 to 10, it was about a 15. I literally had tears rolling down my face. (And I have a very high pain threshold.) It did eventually loosen up and I got a little sleep.

BUT, this morning, the nurse took out the other drain and the pain went away - in seconds!
Oh, I wanted to kiss her feet!
So, both nurses told me that the pain was probably from the drains and both nurses were right. I don't know why I ever doubted it.

The funniest thing is that as soon as the drain was out this morning and the pain in my side was done, I could suddenly feel the incision - again, in seconds. Don't get me wrong, it's not exactly painful. It's just that I feel a tightness, a pulling. Apparently, it's because the area is still numb because of the severed nerves. As time goes on, the numbness will gradually go away. Luckily by that time, any pain that I would otherwise be feeling should be gone. Having been though a similar experience with the lumpectomy in 2004, I know what to expect.



During all this, I've been amazed at the number of people in my church rallying around me. I don't know why I'm amazed, I have that kind of church family. I can't help but think that having 200-300 people praying for me has got to be helping me heal faster.

In the past week, I've been outside of my home exactly four times. Three of those times were church events. They make it easy for me. Home to church, sit for a couple of hours, then home again. Not too tiring, not too long. Tonight, I went to a dinner celebrating my church's 10th anniversary. I had to cut it a bit short but that's okay. It was a great evening.

I love my church and I love my God. With that group backing me, anything is possible.

Oh, one last point - I go back to the oncologist on Nov. 4th. Hopefully I'll find out if I have to do chemo or start getting ready to get back to work. Either way, I'm ready.