Surgery Update

Just a quick note of thanks for your good wishes and prayers. My sister’s surgery went well. Because they started about 2 hours late and her post-op pain was significant, they ended up keeping her overnight. Yep. We live in a world where a mastectomy is considered an OUTpatient procedure. BUT, they transferred her over to the main hospital around 7 pm Monday night. She went home Tuesday afternoon and is dozing well in between doses of pain meds.

We had a good laugh over her surgery hat, which was both silver and poofy. She seriously looked like she had a fresh batch of Jiffy Pop on her head.

For the most part, I lived up to my end of the agreement and only got misty a couple of times. Once, when they finally took her back for surgery. And again, when we first saw her in the recovery room in so much pain.

Otherwise, I held to our deal with my brother-in-law that I would NOT be chatty or require any attention, support, or entertainment. While waiting, I wore my iPod and read. That’s it.

Even when I got a little weepy, I quickly sucked it up and fulfilled my duties of getting her anythingshe needed, thanking and interfacing with the hospital staff, andgenerally cheerleading her through each step. I also handled most of the outbound calls to family and friends so that her husband didn’t have to.

The week before her surgery I coped in the kitchen. Since most offers of help focus on dinner, I wanted to be sure there were some breakfast and snack options too. I baked all this in one day last week:

Ham, Cheddar, and Broccoli Quiches

 

{all photos lost in blog photo glitch … so sorry}

Cranberry/Orange Bread

 

Banana Bread

 

Chocolate Chip Muffins

 

Blueberry Muffins

 

I also made a big batch of pancakes, but I must have forgotten to snap a shot of those.

All of is it easily freezable. So, I portioned everything out into individual servings and froze them. That way she can just defrost what she needs. I delivered half to my sister’s house over the weekend, and I’ll drop off the rest later. We don’t want to jam her freezer too much right away.

We’re trying to set up a system where each group within her community of friends/family takes one week per month to bring 2-3 dinners. We’re not trying to do 7 meals each week because that’s just too much, but even a couple meals is a huge help. Each group kind of has a team leader who coordinates the designated week and delivery, etc. It sounds good on paper. Let’s hope it works, especially as the weeks and months of treatment drag on.