Checking in

Just want to let everyone know I’m doing fine. I’m slowly recovering from surgery. It’s very slow.

We are still waiting for the pathology report. We had hoped to hear on Monday and now it’s Thursday night. We’re not sure why it’s taking so long. Perhaps the lab is extra busy due to the coronavirus?

When they did my surgery, they removed the 15 lymph nodes closest to the cancerous site. We are waiting to hear the condition of those lymph nodes. It could range from 1) normal, 2) swollen because they were working hard to fight the cancer, 3) contain pre-cancerous cellular abnormalities, or 4) contain cancer.

We’ve been preparing ourselves for the likelihood of chemo. But if the lymph nodes are all perfectly normal, the doctors might say we don’t need to do chemo. It would sure be nice to just know.

I hope you’re all doing ok with the coronavirus so far. In Boston we have about 100 confirmed cases, but a real shortage of tests, so it’s impossible to know. Lots of schools are closed and most people who can are working from home. The stores have run out of cold medicines and toilet paper. I think that’s how it is most places.

John happened to be at the Home Depot (John is always at Home Depot) and he thought to look for toilet paper there and found some, which was good because we were running low. He only bought one packet of the size we always buy, which is enough. I don’t think it’s fair or reasonable for people to be hoarding items, although I understand everyone is in different situations.

I’m taking fairly large doses of Tylenol for my post-surgery pain, so I’m grateful my bottle is big enough to last a little while. I would be out of my mind without it. And I can’t take aspirin because I’m on a blood thinner to prevent post-surgical blood clots. The blood thinner is a daily shot – yuck! John gives it to me, which is good because I wouldn’t have an easy time giving it to myself. I was also given a prescription painkiller, but I got off it as soon as I could – within a couple of days of getting home.

I’ve been getting my groceries delivered because I’m not well enough to go to stores. I can barely walk – just a slow bent shuffle and not for very far or very long. The grocery delivery has been wonderful, but today the system got overwhelmed by people who are trying to stay home. So no deliveries available in our area. I hope the system rebounds soon. I’m grateful I have John who can go to the store for me if needed.

On a more cheerful note, here’s Emily with Phoebe. She hardly looks like a newborn anymore!

And here’s Daphne and Thea. Mostly it’s been gray and cold, but on Monday we had an unusually warm spring day. The first semi-warm day of the year. It was lovely.

I want to thank you all for your continued thoughts, prayers, love, emails, texts, etc., I really appreciate all of it!