Surgery Update and Mesa, October - November

I sincerely feel that I have been the recipient of an honest to goodness miracle.  Ken gave me a beautiful blessing prior to my surgery, and I really felt calm throughout the events and procedures leading up to the operation.  The doctors, nurses, surgeon and anastisiologist were all very friendly, kind and caring.  They thoroughly put me at ease before being wheeled into the OR.  I lost it, for a brief moment or two, when the assistant to the anastisiologist told me that there was a room full of people that would take very good care of me.  I think that one statement made it real for me.  I have cancer and they are going to take out a lobe of my lung.  I felt the love of my Heavenly Father and the comfort of the Holy Ghost as they wheeled me into the OR.  I thought about the atonement, and how my Savior had suffered every pain and affliction that I might go through.  Rachel Platten's Fight Song was looping in my mind throughout every procedure.

The great thing about surgery is they wheel you in and next thing you know you are in recovery!  Dr. Fromm had studied my scans the night before surgery, and he told me he was pretty confident he could do the operation without shingling my ribs, which would hasten the healing process.  I felt total confidence in his decision.  I was wheeled into the OR at eight o'clock and in my private room by noon.  I had a chest tube, catheter, compression gadgets on my calves, and IV's in both hands.   Surprisingly, I was not in much pain.  The beautiful flowers from friends and family when I got to my room was very comforting and very much appreciated.

Laying  on my back is not my favorite position, and the constant compression and decompression on my legs was driving me nuts.   The surgeon came by to see me around nine o'clock that night.  I had not taken any pain meds and was feeling fine.  He looked at my chest tube drainage and said I could probably go home in the morning.  I couldn't believe my ears.  I asked him if he was sure.  He said he would come back in the morning to check on me but it was not out of the question.  Over the course of the night they removed both IV's, the catheter and the leg compressions.  I was a happy camper, but not able to get any sleep.

Dr. Fromm came early the next morning with a young resident.  After a quick assessment he said he was ready to take out the chest tube.  Yeah!!  A deep breath, a tug on the tube and a few quick stitches and I was free to move about the room.  After a ride in a wheel chair to get another chest x-ray, I was able to shower and get dressed.  The discharge order was up before noon, and we were free to go.  Ken was amazing through the whole ordeal and promised to take good care of me at home.

It felt so good to get home and take a nap in my own bed.  I rested up on Saturday, and by Sunday I was back to church and started walking around the park.  We started out gradually, but it was only about a week before we were walking a mile or more at a stretch.  I was pretty diligent about the spirometer, and got up to 2500 within a couple of weeks.  I can't seem to get beyond that though.

My follow up with Dr. Fromm was a week post surgery.  I was pretty confident he would send me on my merry way.  Because some cancerous cells were found in the lymph nodes that were removed, Dr. Fromm referred me to an oncologist. I could not get in to see him until the beginning of October.  We were anxious to get on with our trip, but we hung around and enjoyed the sights in South Dakota until we got the go ahead from Dr. Sahin.

 My recommended plan of follow up is a chest xray in 3 months, a CT scan in 6 months,  a chest x-ray in 9 months and another CT scan in a year.  Repeat for two years.  If nothing changes I will move to 6 month intervals until five years pass.  At that point I will be declared cancer free.  I am so ready to have this put behind me, and continue to feel really good!

We left the very next day and headed to Arizona.  Our route took us west through South Dakota and Wyoming, and then south through Colorado and New Mexico.  It felt good to see the 40 West sign out of Albuquerque and into Arizona.    The scenery was beautiful, and the mountains quite majestic.  I think the steepest grade we had to climb on our entire journey was between Holbrook and Mesa.  With lots of prayers we made it, and we were pleasantly surprised when we pulled into the Good Life RV Resort.

The ammenities in this park are amazing.  There are two big heated pools with hot tubs,  shuffle board courts with bleachers,  bocci ball courts, tennis and pickle ball courts, wood shop, craft rooms, billiard room with 8 tables, rec hall with ping pong tables, card tables and bikes for the spinning classes.  A full gym with state of the art equipment and a personal trainer on site Tuesday, Thursday and Friday.  They host BINGO every Friday night in a ball room that seats 1300 people.  There is an on-site US Post Office and covered patio areas where they host happy hour parties, complete with bands and dancing three afternoons a week.  They serve coffee and doughnuts every Tuesday morning, and this is where they make all of the announcements about upcoming events in the park and around the area.  Ken and I signed up for a Spanish class and a core strengthening class on Tuesday and Thursday mornings.  I do water aerobics every morming from 9 - 10.  I have also taken Zumba and line dancing classes.  The arts and crafts room is open for paper crafts on Fridays, and I have had fun with the ladies in there.

Another cool thing this park does is host a Country Store every Wednesday from 9 - 12. About 100 vendors show up every week.  It's like a mini street fair, but indoors.  They do it in the ball room.  We had a table one week and were able to sell some of the things we have made while on the road.  We will probably do it one more time before the end of the year.  

The weather was super hot when we arrived, but we were able to take a quick trip to Michigan for 10 days to visit our parents and get out of the heat for a bit.

We took a road trip up North to visit Dominic, Nicolette and Joe for Nicolette's eighth birthday.  We were also able to be there for her baptism and that was a great event in her life.

We've met some really nice people and have throughly enjoyed our time.

We had a totally awesome unexpected visit from our three oldest grandkids when they were passing through town on their way back from Mexico.  When they discovered we had the RV   with us, all they wanted to do was go to our trailer and do art.  It was a chilly, rainy day and perfect to get a little creative.

We await our mission call, and look forward to a visit with Ken, Sarah and Calvin in December.