A week since surgery

Wow - hard to believe a week's gone by already since surgery! Here's a quick update:

• My surgery last Thurs. lasted about 3 hours, an hour shorter than they thought it might (we took that as a good sign)
• I was in the Recovery room for over 7 hours because they were waiting for a room to open up for me (Recovery is not a fun place to hang out; my stay was made more bearable by visits from Terri and Nurse Rosalie - thank-you!! Rosalie bought me the cutest stuffed carrot pillow - it looks like it's got a band-aid on its tongue, plus stiches along its neck!)
• 3 good friends from church visited me that nite (about an hour after I got into my room) - Cheryl, Colleen & Diane. They made me laugh so hard I was crying! (I don't really recommend that right after surgery - but it distracted me from my pain for a bit!)
• Other friends from work & church visited thruout my stay, and family & my church sent all kinds of flowers - all helped brighten my time there - thank-you!!!
• They'd hoped I could be released on Sat., but I ended up having problems keeping food down that morning so kept me for another day. I thought the same thing might happen Sunday (I battled nausea for quite a while), but I felt better by the time the Dr. came around in the early afternoon, so I was a free woman! Yay!
• I've been staying at the Bairds home since Sunday afternoon, nicely set up in a spare upstairs bedroom. Terri's been taking good care of me (for those that don't know, I lived w/ the Bairds for 6 1/2 years, so they're like a 2nd family to me - thank-you so much!!!). They've also got wireless internet access, so I'm in heaven! ;-)
  
• My throat & mouth were incredibly sore, and I still don't have full movement in my mouth yet. Tongue's still pretty numb, and a good part of the right side of my face & neck is numb. They said it would take 8-10 months to regain all the feeling there. My neck's also incredibly stiff, and I have limited movement in my right arm - it'll take a while to regain my strength there.
  
• I've been seeing steady improvement every day - have been able to visit and talk with folks, go out for short walks, my energy's getting better daily, my appetite's improving (though I'm still limited to mostly liquid or very soft foods), I'm needing less pain medicine, my speech is improving, etc. I can even take a shower & wash my own hair now - yippee!! (simple pleasures...)
  
• My friend Brenda & I realized the other night, as we were watching the movie Capote, that I sound just like him! Made for a good laugh. ;-)
• This same Brenda also dropped off a bag yesterday that had just about every scarf available from a local Ross store in it - for me to go thru and pick out some that I like! (To help cover up my neck scar for a while). What a great friend!...
  
• I had a follow-up visit with the Dr. yesterday and got the staples in my neck removed. I no longer look quite so Frankenstein-ish - yay! I'll be able to start neck stretching exercises by Sunday. Those will be very important, as I could suffer permanent disability if I don't do them.

Speaking of my appt. yesterday - the Dr. had the pathology report from my surgery. The very good news is that there's no sign of the cancer spreading to the lymph nodes - HALLELUJAH!! That, of course, was the biggest concern.

But - there's an unexpected glitch: There's a possibility they didn't get it all out. I have a 'close posterior margin' - even though the margin tests they did during surgery showed no cancer cells along the edge of the incision and they thought they got it all on the first try, the tumor itself shows indications of *possible* spreading beyond the rear edge of the incision. :-( I learned that you have to have at least 1000 cancer cells for them to show up microscopically, and because this is so close, it's possible that there were some cancer cells left behind, but they just didn't show up in the earlier test.

So, what are my options?  One is radiation, which he doesn't recommend -
because it would dry out my mouth, and we wouldn't have it as a treatment
option if anything reoccurs in the future.  Another is to just watch it closely,
come in for monthly checkups, and see if anything develops.  There's a chance
nothing would, but if anything did, once it's visible, it could also mean
possible spreading elsewhere.  And would mean more to be removed.  The
other option is to go back and let him take just a bit more out of the posterior
section of my tongue, just to be safe.  It would be an out-patient procedure,
still under general anesthesia, but not as drastic as what I just underwent.
It's what he recommends.

I meet with the Tumor Board again on Monday afternoon for them to review
my case and offer their recommendation (it's made up of head & neck surgeons,
oncologists, radiologists, etc).  Then we'll take it from there.  If I decide to go
with surgery again (which I most likely will), I'm not sure how quickly they'd
want it done, or if they'd want me to heal up a bit more first.  He said there
was no rush for me to make a decision.

It was a bit of a challenge to get that news yesterday - I was really hoping
for this to all be over.  But I have to keep reminding myself about the better
news by far, that the cancer hasn't spread.  And I need to keep reminding
myself that God is still in control, regardless the circumstances.

Thanks (again & again!!) for all your prayers, love & support through this
challenging season in my life!