Jackie

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This is my diary of Jackie's double mastectomy - reconstructive surgery.  It's at St. Joseph's Hospital in Tucson Arizona.  Val and I flew down on 1-9-07.  The surgery is on 1-11-07.  We fly back on 1-16-07.

During her annual checkup, they checked a lump and she found out it was cancer on 12-1-06.  The surgery is over a month later because the mastectomy surgery and reconstructive surgery are being done at the same time, so they had to find a time when both surgeons would be available.

Click these links to jump to the Diary notes:
             

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There are a total of 96 pictures.  I've complied a 'short list' slideshow of 14 pictures

You'll need Adobe Acrobat Reader to view the slideshow - click HERE to download it.

* Note: in order to make viewing the pictures go faster, I've uploaded only low-resolution versions of all these pictures, which are not suitable for printing.  If anyone would like hi-res versions, please contact Denny or I and we'll gladly email them to you.

1-9-07

We landed at 11:30am, rented a car and went right to our favorite fast food place for lunch - Sonic !  Jackie was at work, then she went to her hair place to get a cut and color.  She got home around 8:00pm.  We spent the afternoon getting our two laptops plugged into their internet cable modem.  I brought down the wrong stuff, so we had to drive to CompUSA and buy a wireless router with 4 ethernet ports.  It was sunny and in the high 70's, so we sat outside and chatted with Denny.

Jackie had a gift certificate for an Italian restaurant - Trattoria Pina - that she wanted us to use, so Val and I went there around 7:00pm. - amazing food!  We got back to the house around 9:00pm and shared the dessert that we brought back.  We all chatted until around 11:00pm and then went to bed.

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1-10-07
 

Woke up around 8:00am and took Jesse for a walk.  Jackie ran some errands, then we went to Sabino Canyon at 12:15pm.  We decided to not take the tram and to walk the Bear Canyon off-road trail.  Fantastic scenery and it was in the low 70's and partly sunny - perfect for a brisk walk.  We made a few stops on the way home (margarita mix :o) and got back around 4:00pm.  We went for supper at La Parrilla Suiza around 6:30pm.  Got back home, completely stuffed, around 8:30pm.  We chatted for a while and were in bed around 10:00pm.

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1-11-07

6:15am
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Alarm goes off - time to get ready. She had to take off all jewelry, but her wedding ring was really tight - it hurt to take off.

7:15am
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On the road to St. Joseph's Hospital. It's 18 miles, but with traffic, it takes us 45 minutes to drive there. Jackie's work is just a few blocks away, so she drives this route every day.

8:10am
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Finally get to the "Ambulatory Surgery" lobby. Parking is terrible, so we had to drive around a bit to find a spot. The spot was a little ways away, so we had to walk to the lobby. This particular lobby is separated from the hospital - you have to walk outside and take an elevator that only goes to one floor. There are only 2 elevator buttons - a number 1 and a number 3 - no number 2, so the lobby is on the 3rd floor.

I fire up my laptop and find that they have wireless internet access without needing a password to access it, so I'm able to crank out these updates in real-time :o)

8:25am
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They tell us that we have to drive to Dr. Eades office (plastic surgeon), so that they can use a marker to draw lines on her skin. It's about 3 miles away. It only takes them 5 minutes to mark her up.

9:10am
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Back in the hospital lobby. Parking was even worse - drove all over and ended up parking a LONG ways away. They put her in curtain 11 and take some vitals. We are able to sit with her. It's a busy place, with about 15 curtains in a long row. Each curtain has a hospital bed and some equipment.

9:50am
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They take her to the "Nuclear Medicine" area. They're going to inject a radioactive dye into her right lymph node under her arm. This is so the surgeon will know which node to biopsy when she's in surgery.  Andy was the tech.

11:00am
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She's brought back to curtain 7.  They were backed-up, so it took longer than expected.  She mentions that her ring finger is still sore from taking off the ring :o)

11:10am
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They move her to the Pre-Op room.  This is the last time we'll see her before the surgery.  It happened so fast, we didn't have any time to drop some tears :o)  They move us to another waiting room.  There are 17 operating rooms.  They anticipate 4 hours for the surgery.  The surgeons will come out to give us updates as they finish different things.

* Note from Jackie: part of the process of going through pre-op, everyone kept asking her what her date of birth was, for verification or whatever.  She must have been asked that more than a dozen times.  One nurse didn't believe she was 54!  She said she sees hundreds of people a year, so they are very good at judging a persons age by how they look.  The nurse was positive that Jackie was lying and that she was much younger :o)  Anyways, it was a nice way and thing to think about, right before she was put under.

11:45am
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I start putting together the list of email addresses that I need to send updates to.  Sounds like a fairly straight-forward task, but boy did I run into trouble.  First, I find out there's no way to import a list of addresses into a 'group' list - I'd have to type them in one by one.  Then, after I resort to a copy-n-paste method, a bunch of the names from Jackie's list, come across as 'full names' with the email address hidden in the background.  So now I have to copy-n-paste all these names a 2nd time.  Then I go to actually send the email - it won't send - too many email addresses in the To: field.  So, I resort to using my work email address to send it out and that worked.

I then start work on putting together this web page.  I remote-control my PC at home with my laptop here at the hospital.

12:50pm
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After the email fiasco we decided we're hungry, so we walk 1/2 a block to Joe's Crab Shack for some fuel.

2:00pm
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We're back to the 3rd floor waiting room.  I plug my laptop in to start charging because it only has a 1% charge left.

2:50pm
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Dr. Roeder? stops by - her part is done and Jackie did great!  The removal went very well! The other doctor needs about another hour, then recovery will take about an hour.  She'll be getting lots of good pain meds :o)

The biopsy of the lymph node came back clear !!!  Pending the official lab results, the cancer does not appear to have spread to the nodes!

4:25pm
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Dr. Eades came out - the reconstruction went perfect - a 100% success :o)  She's awake and doing fine !

6:00pm
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She's out of recovery. They kept her a little longer because she was really cold.  Her voice is a little raspy, so the first thing she wanted were ice chips.  She's in room 538.  She's also on oxygen because her numbers were just a little bit low.  She was awake in the OR for about 15 minutes during the prep.

6:25pm
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The nurse came to take vitals: Temp. is 98.5; BP is 122/71; Oxygen is 98%; Pulse is 88

6:45pm
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Nurse Stacy came by to drain her drain tubes. There are 2 tubes in each side.  They will drain them every 8 hours, and they don't have to wake her up to do it.  About 2 oz's came out of each side, which is normal.  There are rubber bulbs attached to each tube.  To set them, you squeeze the bulb to push the air out, then you plug the top of it, creating a suction.  When it's time to drain the fluids, they just release the plug and the suction draws the accumulated fluids out.

She also has her thumb on the trigger for the morphine drip, which she takes advantage of every 10 minutes :o)

She has compression wraps on her lower legs.  Every so many seconds, they squeeze her legs to stimulate blood flow.

Also, the wireless internet works in her room, so I'm still good to go.

The good news is that her ring finger no longer hurts :o)

7:00pm
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It's now Ok for her to have clear liquids.  She chose plain water over apple juice.  Val has fed her ice chips every 10 minutes or so, up until now.

7:25pm
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Like clock-work, they came back for vitals: Temp. is 98.1; BP is 124/71; Oxygen is 100%; Pulse is 77

Jackie is raving about the service.  All of the staff has been really helpful and attentive!

Her voice is much better and she's already noticeably less groggy!!

8:00pm
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Vitals: 113/75; 100%; Pulse 74;  They will now only come every 4 hours for vitals.

She'll also be getting an Incentive Sperometer - it aerates the lungs to stave off pneumonia.  She has to blow into it every 4 hours, so I'm guessing she won't be getting a good night's sleep :o(

8:15pm
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She's getting pretty tired, so we give hugs and head for home.

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1-12-07

9:40am
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We're arrive and she's sitting up in a chair eating breakfast ! :o)  Broth, lemon jello, tea and apple juice came at 9:00am.

7:50am
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Dr. Stricof came by for a visit.

9:00am
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She got out of bed for breakfast.  The compression wraps kept her awake last night. And the nurses kept turning on the big light.  The drain tubes will be in for 10 days.  Her hands are a little swollen from the saline drip.  She did push the morphine button throughout the night :o)  Her chest feels like there's a very very tight giant rubber band stretched over it.  She had ice chips throughout the night.

Her voice is much better but still a little hoarse.  She can't seem to shake the dizziness feeling, but it's getting better as long as she sits up in the chair.

9:15am
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Dr. Roeder came by - wants to take her off morphine today and onto oral meds.  She looked under the bandages and was very pleased - it looked good.

9:30am
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Alice called to see how it's going.  They had a nice chat.

9:50am
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Nurse came in - the goal for today is to: remove the morphine, saline drip and catheter; start eating solid foods and to go for a walk.

The A/C went out last night - the nurses kept coming in asking if she was too hot - no way - she was in heaven - she's likes it when it's warmer in the room.

Even though she's a side sleeper, laying on her back all night wasn't so bad - there was no back pain this A.M.

10:00am
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3 Bouquets of flowers arrive: One from the gang at Radiology Limited; One from Grandma-Grandpa / Denise-Gary / Doug-Marcia; One from Dan, Debby, Ed and Karen.

10:30am
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Dr. Strober called for a quick chat.

10:35am
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The catheter came out - hooray !

10:40am
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Nurse came to take her for her first walk.  They went down the hall about 50 yards and back.  The walk felt fine, but now that she's back laying in bed, she feels sore.  She's gonna take a little nap.

11:20am
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Dr. Ashdown called to wish her well.

11:30am
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Flowers and a gift arrive from Stephanie, Kathy and Sylvia.

12:00pm
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Denny arrives - updates her on Jesse's pulling down of a branch from their Lemon tree :o)

The morphine drip has finished.  They will now alternate every two hours with Vicodin and Advil.

12:30pm
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We leave for home to have lunch.

1:00pm
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Lunch arrives - Beef Broth, Orange Jello, Apple Juice and Tea.

1:30pm
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Jim calls for an update.  Agnes and Tracy stop by to say hi.

2:30pm
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Dr. Eades stops by for a checkup. Looks under the bandages, it looks great.  He mentions that the drain tubes only have to stay in for another 7 days.

3:15pm
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Beth stops by to say hi.

3:30pm
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We're back from lunch.

3:40pm
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Mauda calls for another update since her call yesterday.

3:45pm
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Brenda stops by to say hi.

4:30pm
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Dr. McManimon stops by to say hi.

4:50pm
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Lynette calls - everyone is thinking warm thoughts!

4:55pm
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Dr. Inouye stops by to say hi - drops off a nice gift.

5:45pm
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Daron calls to say hi, but missed her again as she was napping.

5:52pm
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Supper arrives - she's done with "clear" liquids and has moved up to "full" liquids:  Tomato soup, chocolate milk, grape juice and strawberry sundae ice cream.

She get's unhooked from all tubes!  They leave the 'port' for IV's in until tomorrow when she will most likely leave the hospital.

6:05pm
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Nurse came to empty the drain tubes. The liquid is still red, but should get clearer as the days go on.

Port 1 had 10 cc's; Port 2 had 50 cc's; Port 3 had 5 cc's; Port 4 had 30 cc's of fluid.

7:00pm
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Time for Advil this time.  We went for a long walk - to both ends of the hallway - about 150 yards.  No pain afterwards this time :o)  She wanted her favorite drink - Cranberry Juice Cocktail - from the community fridge, but they are all frozen solid :o(  I hold them under hot water to loosen them up.

7:45pm
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Nurse comes to take vitals: BP is 93/53 - obviously pretty low, but the nurses aren't too alarmed.

This will be her first night without morphine, so we're all curious how it will turn out.  She alternates every 2 hours with Vicodin/Advil, so she might wake up every two hours to take the pills.  But, at least she won't have those leg pumps on - that's what bugged her the most last night.

She did extremely well today - I can't believe her voice held up so well, but it did.  She remembers everything from being in the operating room, to recovery, to everyone that called or stopped by.  She can't believe how nice everyone is being to her, it's a little overwhelming in a good way  :o)

8:15pm
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She's finally worn out from a day of visiting and walking, so we head for home and she prepares for hopefully a good night's sleep.

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1-13-07

8:30am
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Beth and Mick stop by for a visit.

9:00am
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We're back.  Last night around midnight, her back was hurting, so the nurse brought in heating pad that worked pretty good.  After sleeping sitting up all night, now her butt hurts :o)  I guess they have to invent a heating pad for butts.  They hung a bag of antibiotics at midnight, then another one at 6:00am.

The nurse showed her how to empty the drain tubes.  She'll have to keep track of the amounts until Thursday, so the doctor can be sure it's ok to remove them.  Her voice is 100% today!

Breakfast arrives = bagel, scrambled eggs, bacon & chocolate milk - the bacon is amazing and she's now addicted to chocolate milk :o)

9:40am
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Denise "Maggie" called for a chat.  After talking for a little while, Jackie develops a silly new problem - her arm gets sore just holding the phone to her ear! heehee  So I pitch in and hold the phone for her - sounds silly doesn't it!  Well, it looks as silly as it sounds, so of course, I got a picture of it :o)

10:05am
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Sue "Soup" called for a chat.

10:20am
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We went for a 1/2 hour walk. Two trips, down and back the entire hallway.  She does great, is walking faster and is just happy to be not sitting on her sore butt.

10:50am
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She's able to brush her teeth without any trouble or pain.

11:30am
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Dr. Roeder stops by to change her dressings - everything looks fantastic and officially tells us we can go home! She will be on antibiotics until Thursday.  The Dr. wants her to be mobile and to reach for things within reason - also not to baby herself too much.  Stretching to a degree is helpful to get better.  Her overall movement right now is great.  A home health aide will come to the house each day to change dressings until Thursday.

During the surgery, cadaver skin was placed under her skin - called Aloe-Derm.  They kill all the cells of the donor tissue, that way her own cells will merge with the new skin and she won't 'reject' them.

She can't shower until Friday because of the drain tubes. The drainage has already started to come down and it's noticeably clearer in color.

Pathology results might not be back until Wednesday.  All tapes, bandages, dressings and a few stitches will be removed on Thursday by Dr. Eades.

11:40am
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Lenny arrives :o)

11:50am
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Cathleen called to say hi.

12:00pm
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Val and I run downstairs to Java Spice Cafe for a quick lunch.

12:30pm
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Flowers arrive from Cathleen.  Janet and Bill stop by to say hi.

I have to make 4 trips to the car with all the flowers and gifts :o)

1:05pm
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Rachel stops by with flowers.

1:10pm
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Lunch arrives = salad, peaches, cranberry juice, chicken ala king on a biscuit, broccoli, bread and a strawberry.

1:15pm
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The nurse takes out the I.V. - hooray !

1:30pm
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She finishes her lunch, empties her own drain tubes and puts her street clothes on.

1:40pm
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Lynette called back to say hi.  She called earlier, but the Dr. was changing Jackie's dressings and we couldn't get to the phone.

2:00pm
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We leave the hospital !  She's wheeled out the front door and Denny picks her up in the white pickup.  We thought it might be easier to get her in/out of a taller vehicle - we're right, she just hops right in with no trouble :o)

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1-14-07

Morning
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She slept pretty good last night. She started in her regular bed, but by midnight her back was hurting, so she moved to the orange recliner in the front room.  Her hands/arms are still a little swollen from the I.V. liquids, but she's in fantastic spirits this morning.  Despite the rough nights sleep the last few days, she's pretty spunky today :o)

She was craving her favorite brand of coffee this morning, so I went to Circle K to 'brew' up her special blend: put about 1/4 inch of Hazelnut cream in the bottom of a 20oz cup; fill 3/4 with Hazelnut coffee; fill to the top with Express Roast, or if that's not available, French Roast. 

Her regular dose of pain meds are supposed to be taken every two hours, but she's feeling much better, so she's stretching them to every 3 hours.  The Home Health Aid will come today at 3:30pm to change the dressings.

She emptied her own drain tubes this morning and the discharge is clearing and slowing down, which is great.  Her appetite is normal and she's eating good.

We're planning a light day - making phone calls, some friends stopping by for a visit and going for a short walk.

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1-16-07

Email from Jackie
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Subject: The Results

Dear Family and Friends,

Wow, what a whirlwind few days. And I'm sure you had no idea that y'all would be receiving a detailed documentary of my surgery, including photos, written and produced by my son Jason! (I didn't either...:-). Hopefully you weren't deluged with too much information. ..

The results are in! Dr. Roeder called me last night. She had received my pathology report that afternoon. (I have a feeling some of my radiologists were working behind the scenes to 'hurry along' the results, since Dr. Roeder had not expected to receive them until Tuesday or Wednesday). There was no indication of cancer in my left breast. Additional carcinoma was found in my right breast, but it was the same as the specimens previously identified (DCIS - non-invasive). My sentinel node biopsies were all negative and the margins around my breasts were negative. Therefore, I will not need any further treatment - no radiation and no chemotherapy. HOORAY! That's the best news I could've received!!!

Thanks for all the prayers and well wishes. It is amazing to think that I spent 5 hours in surgery last Thursday, was discharged from the hospital on Saturday and already yesterday I was shopping for plants at Home Depot in the afternoon and went to a movie last night (accompanied by Denny, Jason and Val, of course). Since the drainage from each of the 4 tubes in my breasts is now less than 30cc's, Dr. Eades will be removing the tubes tomorrow. I'm looking forward to no longer supporting 4 plastic bulbs in my underwear...:-). I am not sure how often I will need return to have saline injected into my tissue expanders, perhaps 5 - 7 times during the next couple of months. I expect that the final surgery to replace my tissue expanders with silicone implants will be scheduled next fall. Regardless, the worst is over and I have so much to be thankful for.

Although I have a three page list of tasks I'd love to accomplish while I'm home, I have promised my family that I will take it easy, and I will keep that promise. My days will certainly include time for leisurely activities such as reading, chatting on the phone, visits with friends etc.

Jason and Val are on their way back home to Minneapolis. It was so nice to have my own personal attendants to remind me when to relax, when to take my pills, when to "sit" etc. I will miss them so very, very much! Jason's website is mentioned below, just in case you haven't had a chance to see the nurses rolling me into the operating room..:-).

I have been overwhelmed by everyone's cards, letters, flowers, gifts and phone calls. I've said it before, but I'm going to say it again - I am SO BLESSED to have all of you in my life.

Well, it's about time for my home health nurse to make her last visit, so I'll sign off for now. Please keep in touch and I will do the same. After all, I won't be back in the office until Monday, February 5th!!

Love, Mom/Jackie

Home: 742-2813 Cell: 404-6082

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1-17-07

12:30pm
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She just called me as she was leaving Dr. Eades office.  He took out all the stitches and all 4 drain tubes.  We thought that it would be extremely painful, but it ended up being a piece of cake :o)  She took an extra pain pill before the appointment, but ended up not needing it.  The incisions and surrounding skin still look fabulous and is healing remarkably fast.

She will go back next week to have some more saline injected - starting months of injections to get to the size that looks best for her.

She'll finally be able to try and sleep on her side - if successful, no more sleeping in the recliner !! :o)

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2-20-07

Happy Birthday Jackie :o) - It was yesterday, she's 55 years young!

She's been doing fantastic these last 4 weeks.  She went back to work 1/2 time on 2-5-07, but within 2 weeks, she's been back on her regular schedule.

The injections have been going well, only a little uncomfortable for that one day of the injection.  Can't feel the needle at all.  Today, she had her FINAL injection.  She's had a total of 3 injections - about 300cc's total in each breast.  No more trips to the doctor for 4 months now.  Then, she'll schedule the surgery for her Silicon implants.

As of today, she has full range of motion in both arms - no restrictions in activity.  She still can't sleep on her side - it feels like sleeping on softballs!  She's about a 36b/c right now. 

There's been no complications from removing the stitches and drain tubes.  It's all gone so well, it's just simply amazing.

Here's an email note from Jackie:

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