Cocktail hour in 6345

FINALLY! Cocktails! OK....maybe not the kind of carefree cocktails I'd LIKE to be having - you know, the kind you sip out of a fancy shaped glass while lounging on some sandy beach in a tropical locale - but this cocktail mix I just took is about as good as it gets from where I sit at this moment. Mine is a cocktail of muscle relaxers and percocet. It is believed that a good amount of the pain I'm having is from muscle spasms since my chest muscles were relocated during the surgery, but also because of nurse brutis' nonsense the other night - a painful combination of ouch ouch ouch that got old quickly. Thankfully, nurse brutis was alone in her mission to kill my spirit and make me feel like crap. All the others since her have been running around trying to make it better. Earlier this afternoon my plastic surgeon, Dr.Crisera, who is in charge of my care (since the reconstruction is a lengthy multi-step process that just began) came in and apologized profusely for what he heard had been going on this weekend with my pain. He asked for nurse Brutis' name so that he can follow up on that craziness (karma is a bitch, ain't it!?) :). By the way, Dr.Crisera is amazing (and adorable) so if you ever need reconstructive surgery in the L.A. area, he's your man. The cocktail is helping. We need to make sure I'm stabilized on the right dose of this cocktail before they send me home so they can be sure I'll be comfortable the next couple weeks before they start pumping up the new booby expanders and of course we need me to be comfortable in order to heal rapidly which is needed before I start chemo. So....I'm spending another night here. That's totally fine with me. Even though I'm woken every 4 hours for medication and vitals I'm getting more sleep here than I have in an entire year at home (no offense little Cooper pooper) and I really need the rest. Thankfully, Bob and my mom are doing a great job crib training my little guy at home so I have faith that night time will get better and better at home - meantime, I'm taking advantage of the screw up here and getting another night of rest with round the clock care. My blackberry kicked the bucket this morning and I spent all day trying to revive it - it's a good thing I'm a patient and not a doctor because poor mr.blackberry coded and expired in spite of my efforts. So now I have no cell phone access unless Bob is here (so, just during the day) - just email access via laptop. Then it took several hours of convincing the IT powers that be at work that it truly had seen its last day and needed to be replaced. A new one should be arriving at my house tomorrow. If you need to reach me while I'm still here - email me and I'll send you the # you can call me at here in my room. Cancer -- just because you're not hormone-receptive doesn't mean you have a free ticket to wreak havoc on my body - your boarding pass has been confiscated so beat it, jerk! Love, Julie PS - A few people have asked me about the sign above my head in my hospital room which reminds staff not to perform any procedures such as BP checks on my left arm. The reason for this is that now that I have 17 fewer lymph nodes on that side, I'm at risk for developing lymphedema which can be brought on by certain things and thus several precautions now must be taken, including not allowing injections, blood draws, or BP checks on my left side, among other steps that I'll be learning more about in my post-op education and therapy process.