Life Lately

I've been a horrible blogger lately! Well, I decided to do an update.

When I had surgery on April 22, the plan was to take out the cancer and do a skin graft. I didn't have enough good skin (because of the radiation I had in 2007) to stretch over the scar and my surgeon knew she would need the help of a plastic surgeon to get the job done. So I met with Dr. B. to make plans. He told me that if a lot of the muscle had to come out in order to get all the cancer, then a skin graft may not even be possible during this surgery, that we would have to wait for the tissue to regenerate so that a skin graft would not die. Dennis and I prayed that a skin graft would be able to happen, that things would be easy, that I could quickly get back to the business of caring for my family. But we have also learned to pray that the will of Heavenly Father be done. We prayed for this as well. Dennis gave me a blessing before surgery. We prayed for my surgeons that they would be guided.

When I got out of surgery I learned that they had to take out a lot of the muscle, clear down to my ribs. I felt at peace with what had happened, but the road was not to be at all short or at all easy. We are still on the road and daily praying.

Dr. B. put a wound vac on my scar. Wound vacs suck out all the gunk and also help wounds heal very quickly. But it had to be changed 3 times a week and the pain during the changing process was excruciating. After a week with the wound vac I developed a yeast infection under the tape. I have never been so happy to get a yeast infection! That meant they had to take off the wound vac. Now my dressing is just gauze and tape and it has to be changed 7 days a week. I have been traveling 45 miles a day to get it changed by professionals who do this kind of work all day, every day. They are very good at what they do and I have grown to love and appreciate them very much. I have enjoyed being taken to my appointments by loving family and friends. My pain medication renders me unable to drive.

The Dr. saw my wound a couple of weeks ago and said that things were not healing as fast he hoped. He wondered if I would be interested in Hyperbarics Oxygen Therapy. It helps people like me heal and heal much faster. So arrangements were made with my insurance company. I started Hyperbarics last Tuesday. I will do it for 6 weeks. The hardest part is getting there by 8:00 every morning, 5 days a week. But my dear family and friends have made even this easy. I have someone show up to drive me. Dennis takes Drew and Mary to whoever has offered to tend them for the day. It worked out so well last week. And school will be getting out in 2 weeks and then there will be even more options.

I could do a whole post about what hyperbarics is like. And maybe I will. It isn't bad at all. It takes about 2 hours. After hyperbarics, I walk 10 feet down the hall to wound care and then I go home.

The Dr. now is saying that I can have surgery in about 10 days. Because of the end of school, I will not be able to do it that week, but there is a light at the end of the tunnel! I am so thrilled.

I could do another post (possibly a whole book!) on all I have learned from this experience. I hope to do that someday. "WOW" is all I will say right now. I am so grateful for a very loving and caring Heavenly Father. He blesses immediately when I cry to Him. And I have cried to Him so very often in the past month. I know that He has not forgotten me and that there is purpose in all I have gone through. I don't understand why it seems like everything that could go wrong, has gone wrong, and I'm not asking why. Still I have to admit that it is hard to not worry that more bad stuff will happen. I need to continue to trust....