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.

I've been silent much of this week because of a scary incident: Mom had a transient ischemic attack (mini stroke) Tuesday that caused her to have trouble forming words. We spent most of Tuesday afternoon in the ER, before switching to a patient room for observation and further tests until Wednesday evening. Thankfully it occurred while she was at her regular appointment with her PCP, and he got her checked in to the ER with a minimum of red tape. The attack seems to have resolved quickly with no lasting effects, and she feels fine now.

Any health~ma you can send her way for avoiding further or worse attacks would be greatly appreciated.

Soooo… Mom has bile duct cancer.

(If we could skip the Fuck Cancer thing I’d appreciate it - her dislike of profanity is profound.)

The cancer center where she lives was lazy and ineffectual, told her she was inoperable, Stage 4, and had less than a year… sorry old lady. Pulling teeth to get appointments for PET scan, nutritionist, pain specialist. Hell, if we ARE at palliative get those guys in here!

I kept pointing out I’m a hundred odd blocks from Memorial Sloan Kettering, why are we screwing around with these schmucks?

After a month of this nonsense, she came up, consulted with MSK, may be being being restaged, met with a surgeon, and started scheduling support appointments immediately.

So, the fight is on. I have a new roommate named Mommy and we’re going to save her life.