Rest & Recovery

05.21.2012

Hi everyone,

I can’t believe it was a little over a week ago when I was in the ICU post-op. I left the hospital on Wednesday afternoon and settled into my cousin Emma’s home about 20 minutes north of Boston. The photo below is the work of my wonderful welcoming committee, Molly, Owen, Emily (and Dylan just out of the frame!) they covered my bed with stuffies. It was definitely the best sleep in recent memory! I am still on a good deal of pain medication but trying to wean off a bit more each day. I went from not being able to walk more than a few feet down the driveway on Thursday to now doing stairs and a few good laps of the driveway. Baby steps!

I’ve felt so relaxed here and am so grateful to Emma, Jim and the kids for making me feel so “at home”. The kids take turns reading aunty Sam bedtime stories every night. It’s great. Emma has a wonderful group of friends who have been helping her with the kids as well as dropping off goodies for me. Is there anything more powerful than a girlfriend?!

Aunty Phil (emma’s mom) took over the reins from Alison and Jesse on Tuesday and has been a stellar caregiver. In addition to being great company, she brings me tea in the morning, makes certain I am doing my walks and keeps track of all my pain meds! She left today to go back to her home in upstate new York. I will miss her! She will be back on Friday to greet my mom (her sis) and the plan is for the three of us to spend the week with her in new York.

My cousin Lisa came out for the day yesterday all the way from upstate NY – I’ll see her again next week. My cousin Dave (a radiology resident here in Boston) also took time from his insane night shift residency schedule to visit me in hospital as well as man the BBQ here at Emma’s yesterday to help us all celebrate aunty Phil’s birthday! Surgery notwithstanding, it was just great to have quality family time.

I won’t lie, the surgery was tough! I was in more discomfort post-op than I anticipated. I had hoped we could save some right lung but I was mentally prepared to hear that it had to come out. I’d rather know they got it all out than feel they may have missed some trying to save lung. Aside from scratching Machu Pichu and northern India off my bucket list (high altitude), I have been assured that life should resume to 100% normal. That’s ok by me.

I can’t say enough about the amazing nurses and docs at Brigham & Women’s. Wow, they were amazing. Like a well oiled machine prepared for everything. One night I woke up feeling like I could not catch my breath – my nurse Wilma (from Nairobi!) snapped to action not only reassuring me that all was ok, but propping me up to pat my back (to induce coughing). Then administering what we started to call “the lung bong” which was some sort of broncho-dialator and turn on the ICU bed that vibrates like a cheap motel bed (again to help loosen any accumulation in the chest). It’s amazing how many tricks they had at their disposal! I guess they’ve seen it all.

I’m so glad that Al an Jesse were able to keep everyone up to date on my progress last week (even though that included a bowel report!) I could definitely feel all your prayers and energy surrounding me. Thanks for all your amazing emails and messages. I am still catching up!

So what’s next…? Well, rest and recovery first and foremost. I’ll be out here on the east coast until mid-July. We checked my tumor markers right before surgery and right afterwards and they came way down. We’ll probably wait until I get home to check them again to see if they come down to a normal level. If so, then we basically wait and watch carefully with routine blood tests and CT scans. If not, chemo may be something we’d consider again. Fingers crossed and prayers that this will not be the case of course. The surgeons felt they got 100% of the tumor cells out and anything microscopic was marinated in the chemo wash. That’s the best we can hope for!

Sending you all my gratitude and love for walking with me through this, being by my side with your prayers, love, funny and sincere emails, for supporting those who support me, and for being the best squadron of angels anyone could ever hope for or deserve.

Love always,

Sam xox