The blues - 3 days since surgery

I'm still flushing methylene blue. It was the nuclear medicine that they injected me with before the surgery. It helped identify the tumor and the sentinel lymph nodes. My left chest has some blue spots on it, too. And black and purple. And the letters - in bold green - "YES". Heaven help us if they didn't get it right after seeing that. The nuclear medicine people were young-looking. I asked them if they were old enough to be doing this kind of work. Peter, the technician, assured me that he'd been doing it for 13 years. He said that he was 33. The nurse was 32 and had done this for some time as well. I guess I need to learn to trust the experts - whatever their ages.

Dr. Droesch removed the tumor after finding 3 sentinel nodes. (These are the first nodes that lymph travels through to get to the rest of your body.) Two hadn't shown up earlier even with all that methylene blue in me. But, he found them and those two were cancerous. He told me (because I asked) that they were larger, harder than the other nodes and sticking to the surrounding tissue. The pathologist confirmed his suspicions. So, it looks like I have Stage 3 cancer instead of 2. They will do a PET scan to see if there is anymore cancer (not sure who THEY are or WHEN it will happen). I cried while I was coming out of anesthesia when he told me this. I told the nurse that this wasn't part of The Plan. She was so good at comforting me. She showed me a photo of someone she loved who had survived cancer. She kept suggesting that I stay overnight at the hospital because I couldn't shake off the anesthesia. It was 7pm before I got home.

I cried again today when I called Tracy at work. I'm such a boob. That's what I get for watching Heather's tear-jerker movies! Teresa called me later and told me that it was going to be ALL RIGHT. She told me about a woman who was on the Today Show who is 112 years old and survived breast cancer. Hurray for Teresa who is so upbeat and real. Yes, I will make it through this. It helps right now that I have very little pain. In general, I've been feeling great.

Mom and Dad went shopping today and got me flowers for my window boxes. Mom got some beautiful pink geraniums and some other pretty vines. They are so beautiful. My sister Tifiny planted pink petunias in her window boxes - she said it was in support of breast cancer recovery.

It's been great having dinners brought over to us, too. Monday - I heard that they had spaghetti. Tuesday - Mom and Dad Rickords brought over ham and party potatoes and a chocolate cake! Tonight, we got turkey, stuffing, rolls and cookies. Tomorrow I've heard that they're bringing in chicken soup. Wow. I am just overwhelmed with the generosity. Kids say I should get sick more often! ha