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Hello all! Thank you so much for calls, emails, all of your caring words, loving thoughts and prayers. I appreciate each and every one of them.

So it’s now been a week to the day since my surgery. My mom and sister were here and I had several friends visit me. I stayed one night and was discharged around 5 PM the following day. The one night was definitely needed! I was in a lot of pain and on some serious drugs, as you can see here… LOL

Or better yet… here I am just a few hours after waking up from anesthesia. Heh. I look chilled out and happy. Hmmm. Friends Tempa, April and Emily came to check on me. Our inside joke will forever be “where’s my jello?”

Introducing… Elana Robotron.

I also had my own personal chef. Well, “personal” as in – he would come in, take my order and bring it to me in a silver tray. I think I landed on a special unit somehow. Hey, I’m not complaining! Below I specifically wanted swiss cheese with my omlette. Don’t ask.

When I got home, Phoebe decided to sport a mustache. She walked around for a while totally clueless about her newfound masculinity. Soon she returned to her feminine ways…

Each day since I’ve been home, I’ve grown stronger and stronger. I’m more able to call friends back, leave the house, go do errands with Mom (driver), see friends. But my actions are limited. I can’t raise my arms over my head and I’m walking slowly. I can’t bend backwards yet or twist my back. Both Mom and Kim have helped with massages and helping me clean house – which has been more helpful than they know.

I’m now more focused on my diet and herbs than ever before. My goal is to be as strong as possible to prepare myself for what’s to come – and to hopefully accelerate my current healing. I feel like Sarah Connor getting ready for the impending war at the end of the original “Terminator”. Heh. Last night, for instance I went to my very first nutrition class. Previously I would’ve never considered such a thing!

Sunday night I had some girlfriends come visit me, which was kick-butt. You have no idea! We watched “Airplane” and ordered Thai take-out. It was a great night! To that point I’ve added nothing but comedies in my Netflix queue. *grin* Here’s a pic of us by the pond near my house. Amanda, me, Kristina, April. Elana having a bad hair day:

Onto the interesting stuff: While doing they mastectomy / reconstruction surgery they also removed about 4 of my Sentinel lymph nodes. These are the 1st lymph nodes to which cancer cells spread after leaving the area of the primary tumor. They were all NEGATIVE!! So does this mean the cancer is out of my body? Hopefully yes. Does this mean I’ll still have to have chemo? Unfortunately… yes.

To wrap up, I will not find out when this begins until I see my Oncologist next week. My goal between now and then is to continue to focus on my healing and get strong to prepare my body for what I’m about to tackle. The best part is that I have rights as a patient and am seeking a 2nd opinion. So next week I see TWO Oncologists. Each will have my records and each will tell me their treatment suggestions.

The journey continues and I am optimistic for the outcome! It’s an inconvenience but I will endure and come out stronger for it.

Thank you loved one’s and friends!! See you soon…

Laner