The surgery went well

I am Mary's friend, Betsy. Mary asked me to update her blog because she had her surgery today and can't get to her computer. I suspect if she could have gotten to her computer she would have done it herself!

What a day. After three hours in the Radiation department, and waiting in 4 different waiting areas, they finally took Mary into Pre-Op a little after 3:00 p.m. As you might imagine, our patient was getting a little surly by then -- she was hungry and thirsty and she was just SITTING AROUND. When Mary is ready, she's ready and she was none too pleased to have this portion drag out.

The doctor told us that the surgery would last about two hours -- longer, if there were any complications. Well, she was in surgery EXACTLY two hours. It went without a hitch. The doc took the requisite number of lymph nodes, and found NO CANCER in any of them. That's the best news we could have hoped for. Since they didn't find any abnormal cells in the lymph nodes, chances are the cancer has NOT spread beyond the tumor they saw on the mammogram. She still doesn't know what the next step will be, i.e. if she'll have to have chemo or if she can go without. The doctor said the pathologist will measure the tumor micrscopically so Mary has to wait until the pathology report is in. Unfortunately, the pathology report might not be finished on Friday (she got out of surgery after 6:00 p.m. and it probably was too late for them to turn it around within a day), in which case it will be Monday before she finds out anything else.

Mary came through surgery with flying colors and woke up in recovery asking for Mary Mohn. They made an exception to the rule about not having visitors in recovery and let Mary be there with her for a few minutes. In fact, Mary Mohn was the person who broke the good news to her about the lymph nodes. We were able to spend some time with her in her room this evening and she was doing incredibly well. She wanted everyone to know she was surly, but she wasn't. She says morphine is good. Diet Pepsi is even better. She was comfortable and relieved. She's very, very grateful for her family and her friends and for all of you for caring so much about her.

Mary Mack will be coming home in a day or two and wanted me to encourage all of you to relax and wait until she's home to visit her. If you can't wait, she's at Abbott Northwestern Hospital, Room 3165. If you visit, please be mindful that visits should be short and low key. Send prayers and healing thoughts and don't forget to post comments on this blog.