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
Cranberry/Orange Bread
Banana Bread
Chocolate Chip Muffins
Blueberry Muffins
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.
I’m glad your sister is back home and that her surgery went well. And geez – that is a lot of baking in one day! Wowee, and it all looks so good, too! What a good sister you are!
(Some day when your life isn’t so crazy, you will have to post your banana bread recipe – I’m not really happy with the one I’ve been using.)
Wanna come to my house and bake?
So glad Theresa is doing well!
Very glad to hear the surgery went well. After having to go through something so tough, I bet all of you enjoyed the baked goods.
What a wonderful idea to have meals set up for her. Hope her recovery and treatment is as easy as possible.
Yep. The first thing I learned to do in the kitchen was bake. Really, once you get into production mode, it’s not that much more work to make double batches/loaves or multiple recipes in one day. The kitchen is already a mess … I figure, you might as well keep going.
That is great news about your sister’s successful surgery! Seems as though all the good wishes for her and for you were heeded.
Wow, what a baker…I had no idea you had all that talent in addition to all your other talents…good on ya!