Home Again!

Hello, all!
The surgery itself went pretty well, although it didn't start till 2 hours past schedule. Then when they finally wheeled me in to the surgery room there were additional glitches and they couldn't anaesthetize me. So they just started doing some of the little things they would normally do once I was under- they compared their surgery notes, went verbally through all the procedures they were going to do. I was lying on the narrow surgery bed and my arms were stretched out on either side so they could check my lymph nodes, etc. I was so scared though, and I could hear the beep of my heart rate monitor rising slowly. The doctors were so kind, trying to calm me down, patting my arms, telling jokes, etc. FInally one of them said
let's just put her arms back down- this crucifixion thing's just not working for her. THey tried to distract me by asking me questions ("What is the best school district in this area?" "Where would you send your kids?") I didn't really have many answers- I wasn't very interested in the questions. I was more worried that my heart would pound out of my chest, really.
Finally the anaesthesiologist said "can't we just sedate her?" The surgeon gave the okay, and they gave something through my IV. I felt the sting in my hand, and then almost immediately I felt my head swirl and said "I feel strange". The doctor said, It's okay, just go with it". She told me to think a happy thought before going under and the happiest thought in the world at that moment was :"thank God, they're sedating me!"
Next thing I remembered was waking up and hearing Tony and Charity's voice. It seemed really important to make sure everyone knew how nice the doctors were to me; evidently I said it like 5 times. FInally Charity said "okay, we'll send them a thank you card!"
So I spent 1 night in the hopital (just so everyone knows, morphine is way overrated and Vicoden is way underrated) and have been at home these last 2 nights. The pain is not so horrible, we even walked around the farmers market on Sunday. It was a perfect day and then later Fr Chad came over and did a communion service in the apartment. It was really great, and he gave a beautiful homily. I feel so fortunate!
The results of the surgery will not be in for a week or so, I will go in for a post- op appointment to review results, have the drains removed, etc.
I have a friend, John Stubler who is a professional photographer (http://www.johnstubler.com/). He has been taking pictures of this whole thing for me and when it's all done we will compile the pictures into a book and I can share the experience with others who are facing it. It was such a great idea! He was there for the anointing mass, my haircut (it's really short now), shopping at the wig and hat store, etc. It is a really great use of his gifts, both artistic and interpersonal. Now my whole family is into taking pictures of everything; my mom even tried to take pictures in the recovery room until the orderly told her no more. And Charity is trying to take artistic shots, like pictures of me sleeping taken through the handle of a coffee cup, etc. I will post some soon.