Turbo Cancer: Day 136 - October 25, 2022
Waiting For Recovery To Begin
On this day, last year, my mom wrote:
Had surgery yesterday to remove lump. Hope it works. Have post-op pain, but better than before.
I slept!
There had been a lot of excitement and anxiety leading up to my mom’s surgery. Now that it was done, we were waiting to see if it worked.
Once again, my mom had a drain placed in her thigh. Once again, it was filling with fluid. Once again, we emptied the drain bulb and changed the bandages. Once again, we were hoping and praying for pain relief.
My mom was experiencing a good amount of pain from the surgery itself. The doctor had cut through the skin and the muscle. He had scooped out the fluid-filled capsule, along with the surrounding tissue. Additionally, he had suctioned out large amounts of fluid. He then re-opened the blowhole and inserted a new drain tube. There was quite a bit of trauma in the area. Trauma leads to pain.
Doctor S, the surgeon, sent Lumpy and the extra tissue to the lab for biopsy. While focusing on the hope of recovery, we were waiting for results.
My mom wasn’t sure, at this point, if the post-op pain was separate from the Lumpy pain. She couldn’t tell if the Lumpy pain was gone. She was hoping that the saga had ended, but she couldn’t tell for sure. If the surgery had been successful, the resulting pain would gradually lessen, and then end. The quality of my mom’s life would finally be brought back to being bearable. We just had to wait.
Just a little bit longer.
All that my mom wanted to do was get up and walk around. Her inability to move was exacerbating her back pain. Her back pain was putting a strain on her spirit.
She just wanted to move. Five months earlier, she had been filled with energy, vitality and life. On this day, she just wanted to be able to move again.
But she couldn’t move. We spent the day in bed. My mom colored, I crocheted, and we watched tv. We didn’t have any appointments. There was nowhere that we needed to be. We tried to relax, while we were waiting for recovery to begin.
🤍