Post 1 - Surgery Eve

It's the evening before Dr. Deb's surgery and I've decided that the best way to keep the large number of interested parties informed about the upcoming events is to blog about it.

I blog.  I don't tweet.  I blog.

A little information for those just coming "into-the-know".  Deb had a mammogram last Fall.  The results were, well, mixed.  They said that everything looked more or less OK, but that there was an 'area of interest' - something that they wanted to watch and reassess before the usual one year interval was up.  They asked her to come back in six months.

Fast forward to Spring.  Deb returned to have another mammogram done.  They looked at the results and said "Well, this area we wanted to look at looks fine.  Everything there is A-OK.  This other spot, however, ... we want to biopsy that."  Deb was able to have them schedule the biopsy immediately while she was still there.  We heard back from them on the next day.  The diagnosis was DCIS, or Ductal Carcinoma In Situ.  (Click the link for further information about DCIS).  It wasn't there six months ago.  Ladies, Deb is now a poster-child and strong advocate of getting your mammograms on a regular basis.

A lot more has occurred since that time as far as interactions with the medical community, but I can fill in those gaps later on.  The upshot is that she decided that single-side mastectomy followed by reconstruction is the way to go.  Having been privy to all of the discussions, I have to say that I agree.  If all goes well with this, she won't have to receive radiation or chemo, and that's a very good thing.

Anyway, her surgery is scheduled for tomorrow afternoon.  We'll be at the hospital sometime in the morning so they can begin the whole prep process.  I'm not sure just when they'll wheel her away from me to put her under anesthesia, but I'm not looking forward to that moment at all.  It's strange - I've been through seven surgeries since 1989 and I haven't really had any nervousness at all going into them.  This isn't me, though.  This is my wife of 18.5 years and object-of-my-affection of 26.5 years.  I suppose this is turn-about for all of the times she's watched them wheeling me off to pre-op.  I was always cracking jokes with the staff then.  I doubt I'll feel like that tomorrow.

I'll have the laptop with me tomorrow.  If I can get a wi-fi connection at the hospital I will post an update after they take her back.

Wish her luck.