For those of you who may not see updates on FB: My friend was able to go with me to meet the new surgeon. She and I were both impressed by the doctor & her staff. Still don't have a surgery date, but now I know the *plan* and I have good *information*, both of which make me feel better. So, a couple more scans in the meanwhile, then surgery probably in early to mid-February.

Mom's finally seeing a podiatrist tomorrow. Hope he can help, and that we could get our groove back.

I'm scheduled for breast reduction surgery tomorrow, in hopes of mitigating my chronic upper back, neck, and shoulder pain. It should be pretty routine, as surgeries go, though I'm still feeling a bit nervous, since that still means going under anesthesia and all.

Surgery went smoothly, and I've been home since a bit before noon yesterday. Mostly I'm very tired and very sore, though the pain med rotation is keeping it manageable.

I think I'm overdue for a check in, so: my day-to-day continues about the same - kinda sore, really tired most of the time. I had a cystoscopy (scope of the bladder) last week because the gyn oncologist was concerned that the bladder might have been compromised due to proximity to the uterus/vagina/et al. Finally some good news - no sign of cancer in the bladder! I have another colonoscopy scheduled next Friday (3/3), and that will hopefully be the last test before the surgery. They assure me that they've been working on scheduling the surgery all along (5 weeks now), it's just tricky because I'm up to 3 different surgeons now (gastro-intestinal oncologist, gynecological oncologist, plastic surgeon).

So, unless something miraculous happens between now & the surgery, most of my colon, rectum, etc., is going and my ostomy becomes permanent. Hysterectomy (incl ovaries, etc.), plus (poss TMI) some of the vaginal wall that has been compromised (one of the plastic surgeon's jobs is determining how much to rebuild - or not) Plus, they want to take out the track that my surgical drain has been sitting in all this time (for fear that the material traveling through it was cancerous and they don't want to risk "cancer seeding", and the plastic surgeon will also have to re-build/re-create that area.

So I anticipate a tougher recovery than the first surgery, but they still think they can get all of the cancer, so there's light at the end of this (long, shitty) tunnel.

OMG, finally, a date for surgery! Friday, March 31!

Epic Update - the doctors say the first stage of the operation went well and she’s doing great so far. I'll let you know more as I hear it!

Late epic update- second stage of surgery also went well.

Epic is out of surgery. All went well. We’ll know more tomorrow.

Epic is doing well and they plan to move her to regular room tomorrow.