Julie on a Journey: Progress

One of the things I just didn't expect was how tired I would be after surgery. Those first few days, I wasn't awake more than 2 hours at a time. I got better and wasn't even napping at all. Until yesterday.

Wednesday I was out for 3 appointments in a row. Dad picked me up and dropped me off at the building where the first 2 were. Then after that, my friend Laura picked me up there and drove me over to the dentist for that appointment. They were nice enough to squeeze me in. I can't get my teeth worked on during chemo and I had already canceled my last appointment in December because life was so crazy.

Jim picked me up at the dentist after he got out of work. Wednesday night we were both tired and just stayed in instead of going to a workshop at the cancer community center. That night, I slept great. Got about 7 or 8 hours of sleep.

Yesterday? COMPLETELY EXHAUSTED! I ended up taking a 3 1/2 hour nap! I slept from 10:30 until 2pm. WOW! Guess being out and about for a few hours was a little more than I'm used to.

Last night was good with family coming down to visit for a bit. But I was pretty tired when they left, even after the long nap. I think I was asleep before 10pm and up at 6am. And I have been tired ALL day!

Some good news today. Jim took me in for my followup with my plastic surgeon who is handling my recovery. LOVE her, but she's super conservative. Luckily she ended up removing the 3 remain drains. YAY!! Finally! She said I could take a shower tomorrow. THANK GOD! I'm sick of the little half shower from the waist down with the hand held shower head.

The good news from that appointment... even the doctor said, "You do not look like you just had surgery 2 weeks ago!" So that made me feel good. She sees that I'm recovering quickly.

I also got a "fill" today. She found the ports for the expanders, inserted a butterfly needle and added some saline to each side. I know that I still have a little swelling from the surgery and all, but I feel like I'm bigger now than I was before surgery.

Right now I'm a little sore. Even though I had backed off of the pain meds, I'm feeling a little uncomfortable now. I can feel where they were filled. If I move my arm, I can feel the expanders moving under my chest muscles. It doesn't hurt, but its just a weird uncomfortable, sore feeling.

After I was home from the doctor, it was cool to hang out with my friend Melanie again. She came over with her daughter Aly and the 3 of us went out for lunch. I love hanging out with Mel and it was nice to sort of get to know Aly a bit this week. I used to see Mel ALL the time when I lived in Dracut and Derry, but once I moved south of Boston, it was harder for us to get together. I saw her son Ry all the time when he was younger, but didn't really see Aly ever. She barely remembers meeting me before Monday!

I loved it when Mel told me Aly couldn't wait to come down and visit again and that she loved hanging out with me. She wanted to stay over and not go home. :) I like that age (9) cuz they are old enough to really have their own personality and understand a lot but still young enough for not too much attitude.

Now I'm cooked again. Ready to nap.

The girls are coming over tonight for our "viewing" party to see the pictures from the photo shoot 3 weeks ago. I cheated and looked at mine once I got the link, but I haven't looked at their pictures yet. I can't wait until they get here and we can look at them up on the flat screen attached to the computer... a nice 47" to see all our pictures! Toss in the wine, and it will be a fun night!

I got a couple of pictures today of me with the purple hair that I can share. LOVE having purple hair! I like this better than when I just cut it short.

Maybe its because I only cut it short for surgery, for cancer. Going purple, that was for me! This is sort of sticking it to cancer and just saying F you, I'm keeping this on MY terms! And I LOVE the purple! Even though it might only be for a month.

But the color of my hair kind of depends on the lighting I'm around. It looks different inside my house than it does outside. So here's the pics I got today!!!

Me outside of the hospital before the Dr apt.