Surgery

Mark turned the alarm off and rolled over to wake me up. It was 5AM and I was already awake, I had been most of the night. I jumped into the shower and scrubbed my hair good as I knew I would feel greasy and gross after staying in the hospital along with not being able to shower properly the week after my surgery.

No coffee for me, no water, no breakfast...nothing. I was starving!! I didn't follow the doctors orders and I brushed my teeth...I just couldn't go to the hospital with morning breath!

We walked into the hospital around 6:20AM and the old little volunteer lady gave us a cross look as she glanced at her watch and said "we were expecting you at 6:15". I smiled and nicely asked her if we had to cancel my surgery since I was late....I don't think she appreciated my humor.

The nurse called me back to the ACC area and gave me a gown to put on...with specific instructions of how to wear it: it ties in the back. Well, when I looked at it, it just didn't look right. I needs to open in the front since he has do surgery on my breast which is in the front! So I put it on how I thought it should go...I was wrong and had to fix it when she came back in. Soon after we got settled the nurse came in to hook up a phone in my room, she said we had a call. We were surprised and wondering who would call us, as my mom and the kids were at home sleeping and the rest of our families lived in another time zone and would not be awake to call us.

I answered the phone to Mr. Cantor calling from California! I had agreed to donate my tumor to his company, Scantibodies Laboratories, and he needed to give me some last minute information to get the hospital to release the tumor to Mark so he could mail it out after surgery. It was 7am EST, which meant it was 4am PST. Mr. Cantor talked to Mark and gave him all the instructions for mailing it out, and the names of the doctors to talk to, he had personally talked to the head of pathology in the hospital and made specific arrangements  (we had brought all the signed permission forms along with us) and then he had me put back on the phone and he prayed a loving and sincere prayer for a successful surgery, wisdom for the surgeon, for healing for my body and for all cancer to be found and removed.

With all the prep work completed I was now rolled up to the surgery wing. Mark was allowed to go with me into the prep area. A little bit of panic set in...all kinds of smells and strange sights and just the reality that I was going to be cut open hit me! The anesthesiologist came over and and introduced himself to us...when Mark hear his last name he said "I teach a girl with your same last name, do you know anyone who goes to HT?" And yes, he did, she was his daughter!

Dr. Sherman came in to make some pre-surgery markings on me and he surprised us by asking if we would rather attempt a lumpectomy (since I would not be able to start reconstruction at the same time of the mastectomy; he was trying to find a way to make me not be so disfigured for so long). After some discussion we all felt it was best to stick with the original plan of a full mastectomy...at that point all I cared about was getting the cancer OUT and I could care less what my breast looked like!

Dr. Sherman then surprised us again by asking if he could pray with me before I was put under. He took my hand and said a simple yet moving prayer asking God for wisdom and guidance, thanking him for the ability God gave him and  asking him for healing on my life. I immediately felt at total peace and all fear was gone.

The anaesthesia began to work and I was out.