Step one to getting better

WHAM!!! BAM!!! POW!!!!
Round one goes to Adèle. Sucks to be you Cancer! 

Yesterday was surgery day. Hence the Superhero references above. And in this round, I won! I did.  I had my nice white boxing gloves on (thank you Ryan Gosling) and kicked some serious ASS. I went in strong and came out stronger, albeit a little groggy, sore, stinky, hungry. But the important thing is I came out with less cancer in me, possibly no more cancer in me. Results will let us know what is needed next. A hysterectomy I know is inevitable, put possibly the news of not needing any radiation or other treatments would be just fabulous in my books.

So for those wondering on how the day went, here is a bit more detail. My day started as it does everyday : 5:30am wake-up, get kids lunches packed and bags ready by the door, wake-up kids, dress and feed kids and out the door by 7:15. Then there was coming back home and NOT having coffee. OMG! What a challenge that was. I was allowed one measured cup of water and one of white-cranberry juice. Satisfying - NOT. My escort for the day (dad) came to hang with me for a while before we had to head out the door at 9:45am to head to the Ottawa General Hospital. My given arrival time was 10:30am and we waiting at least an hour in the waiting room before being brought to a room that looked like a gym locker room to dress into a fancy little gown. The room was quite fitting if you think about the fact that you are about to go fight one of the biggest battles of your life. Then you're put into bed in a room full of people awaiting their surgeries. It's a lovely room, space and curtains between the beds. The lights could be dimmed a bit. They ask you the questions you have already answered a gazillion times; do you have allergies, are you taking any meds, what is your name/date of birth, etc. Then dad got to hang with me for a while which was comforting. You know, I don't think you ever hit an age where it's no longer comforting to have a parent next to you when about to face something hard. I softy dozed while waiting for the porter to take me to my surgery room, felt dad kiss my head gently as he left and the porter then came to get me to take me to the next room to wait. I'm quite calm through all of this. I'm at peace, slightly anxious but excited to get this show on the road. I know that once I cross the line into the OR, I will be one step closer to being good, being healthy, being cancer free. So once again, in the hallway by Operation Room 5 I think it was, what is your name/date of birth, what are you here to get, etc. It's quite funny how every person that touches you on the way to the OR asks you all the same questions but thank god cause I would have hated to be heading home with one less kidney or something just because you were wheeled into the wrong room.

Next, came the wheeling into the operation room......
...and I lost it. The tears they came unannounced and man did they come. The strength I felt all morning evaporated and was replaced by fear. Fear of the room itself and all the scary sterile objects, fear of the 6 or so masked people in the room. They introduced themselves to me but frankly they all looked the same. They were all lovely and kind and comforting but scary nonetheless. The resident working with my surgeon spoke softly to me about my kids, my husband, my life while the anesthesiologist worked on my left arm. She was kind, rubbed my hand and seemed interested in my kids and their lives. My left arm got cold, I was given an oxygen mask and then sleep....

Poof, I'm waking up, what seemed to be only mere moments from when my eyes closed. And then again, what is your name, date of birth, etc...What is your level of pain on a scale from zero to 10. It was 3. I felt good except for one damn thing.....I STILL HAD MY COFFEE WITHDRAWAL HEADACHE. Can you imagine!!! The worst part of my day, my day of surgery was lack of coffee. So when I told the nurse I had a headache from lack of coffee, let me tell you I had about 3 nurses laughing out loud. So the drugs I needed then were not to handle the cramps or pain from surgery, it was from java withdrawal. Never would I have thought... Once that kicked in, the nurse asked me if she could bring me a coffee. LOL.

Surgery was approximately at 2pm, an hour surgery, and I was released by 4:15. Not so bad. Recovery was good. I was not in pain, I was not nauseated, I was not dizzy. I was a tad groggy, a tad sore. I made it. I faced a fear, a fear of going under, a fear of going under the knife, a fear of not waking up, of being ill when waking up. I did that. I faced those fears. Not that it was on my bucket list but I will cross it off the list anyway.

I am a SUPERHERO. I am SUPERWOMAN (well at least for one day anyway). Now back to being me. Back to drinking my coffee....