Report from the Front

As Polly is currently asleep in an ICU unit in the Virginia Hospital Center, it falls on me to post the update. If my prose isn't as snappy and delightful as I'd usually compose, I hope you'll forgive me, as I've spent most of the day watching soap operas and staring at a screen that took great delight in informing me over and over that my wife was STILL in the OR.

Polly is doing well. The surgery took 9 hours in all. The mastectomy itself took around an hour and a half, and dreamy Dr Weintrit was pleased with how it went.

Good news to go along with his positive assessment - the Sentinel Node biopsy came back clean, which is a positive indicator that there is NO cancer in Polly's lymph nodes. Yay! That's a great sign that we did indeed catch the cancer as early as we thought and that it hasn't spread past her breast.

Dr. Venturi was similarly positive about his section of the surgery when he came out to talk with us. We didn't have an extensive conversation, but after 7 and a half hours of surgery behind him, I was more than happy to get the thumbs up and let the man go home.

Polly was awake when I went back to see her in the ICU, but very groggy. I doubt she'll remember our conversation but she was at least lucid and clearly not in any pain. One thing I found interesting: since she's going to be immobile for a while, they have her legs encased in special wraps that pump the skin and muscle to ensure that no blood clots happen. They say they'll try to get her up and walking as early as tomorrow. She pretty much wanted to go to sleep, so our visit was short, enough for a kiss and an "I love you." and a big sigh of relief that everything seemed to go so well.

On a final note, my thanks to the wonderful nursing and cancer staff at Virginia Hospital Center, they were fantastic throughout the whole day.

More tomorrow if I get the chance. Good night!