Part 3: My Cancer Story: Surgery, Recovery, Cancerfree

The night before my cancer surgery, I received the call from the hospital that instead of being there at 5:30am for surgery, I needed to be there at 10am. No big deal, but was looking forward to just waking up and leaving.

The morning of Tuesday, November 8 (which also happened to be a historical election day), I got up and showered, preparing for surgery. I received another call from the hospital asking how soon I could be there, there was a cancellation. In about 5-10 minutes, after that call, we were on our way to the hospital where they were waiting for me.

Before I know it, I am all prepped and ready for surgery. The surgery took 4-5 hours. They removed the superficial lobe of my parotid gland and about 10 lymph nodes from behind my ear. My head was wrapped up like a mummy. When I woke up, Ryan was there waiting. The nurses brought me some broth that was about the worst tasting stuff I had ever tasted. Fortunately, my friend, Marian, visited and brought me the best homemade chicken broth ever. The pain medicines did a great job. Marian, Ryan, and I just hung out for a few hours watching updates on the election. It was a great feeling to be on this side of the journey.

My husband by my side after surgery

 
I had one night stay in the hospital. The pain meds continued to keep me feeling good.  Something happens when you leave the comfort of the hospital. I do not remember much from the first four days of recovery. I remember feeling about the worst pain ever trying to swallow. Medicine was getting stuck in my throat. I had to build myself up to swallow - so drinking, eating was painful. I was either sleeping or trying to eat. My mother-in-law and aunt helped out the first few days of my recovery. I had no idea I would need two people. But between my 3 kids and myself, they were busy. They ran to the store several times, trying to find things that tasted good that I could keep down.

Then the worst day I have ever physically felt happened. I could not hold anything down in my stomach. My throat, my incision site throbbed. I could not keep pain meds down, antibiotics down, water, broth, anything. Finally, we realized it was the pain medicine causing the majority of my side effects. Once that cleared out of my body, I was able to feel human again. Unfortunately, it wasn't before I threw up  in front of my friends that were helping.

Through it all, I learned something. On the physically worst feeling day of my life, I saw so many of my friends and family that loved me. I was not alone. They had no idea what kind of shape I was in when they stopped by. But they offered helped that day which I accepted. Everyone offered something that they could do to help out and all my needs were taken care of as well as my family. What an amazing feeling! God is continuing to take care of all my needs before I even knew.

The worms aka stitches

About a week later, I returned back to my surgeon to get my stitches out. I had around 40. My daughter, age 4, said I had worms because how the stitches were done. Dr. Bumphous told us immediately that they were able to remove all the cancer. The margins were clear. I am cancerfree!
After we finished up at the doctor's office, my husband and I, plus my friend, Marian, joined us for  a celebratory lunch at the Troll Pub.

It never occurred to me that I would be getting a cancer free report. I was prepared to recover for a few weeks and then start radiation. Needless to say I was ecstatic to hear this news. I could now focus on a full recovery. I still had swelling, numbness, and limited movement in my neck. However, I had all this with my first 'minor' surgery a few months back. I knew I could get through it.

All the stitches removed

Three weeks after surgery, I went for my first run. It was tough, but it was a great start back into running. A month after my surgery, I revisited with my surgeon who congratulated me again and said my recovery was going great. I do not need to go see him again for another 6 months. Also 4 weeks after my surgery, I started the Livestrong Program at the YMCA. I still had limited movement in my neck, numbness, slight swelling, but making progress. The adventures in the Livestrong Program will be forthcoming in another post.

I just want to thank everyone for all their support and prayers through this cancer journey. Having gone through it, I am better prepared to give support and help to others which I look forward to doing, but pray that I do not have too. I do not want any of my family or friends to have to go through their own cancer journey.

I am currently less than a month away from my 'reventure' of my first ultra race. I recently ran an unsupported marathon with my friend, Marian, faster than I did my trail race last fall with similar elevation. Cancer was a small blip in my year last year. It sidelined me, but did not overtake me. More adventures are to come.

8 weeks post surgery. 16 trail miles in 10 degree temps with Marian.