Out of Surgery and into Recovery

6:15 p.m.

After I met with the plastic surgeon, the waiting-room volunteer told me that I had about an hour and a half until I could see her after surgery. During the next 45 min I called her family, updated the blog and grabbed a quick bite to eat. While I was on my way back to the room the volunteer called and said she was ready early!

The recovery room nurse told me that we could have 10 min together. Although she'd been through about 8-1/2 hours of surgery, she didn't really look much worse than she did this morning.

I kissed her forehead and she opened her eyes. She smiled, whispered "I love you"...and immediately asked me about the results of the test on the nodes. Deflated by the news, she started to tear up and I did my best to reassure her that the surgeon said that this only meant that we need to fight a little more aggressively now--all of the scans still showed that it hadn't spread to other systems. I recounted MM's stories about Spiff and the Clone Trooper suit and the fresh lump from his brother hitting him on the head with a frisbee and she was smiling again.

We shared a few quiet moments and I was whisked away to wait again. Although she was in obvious pain, I still saw in her eyes the love for the boys and me that has been there through all the years.

Got to go--the volunteer told me she's now being moved to her room in the ICU. More later, perhaps from another waiting room or hopefully from bedside.