Post surgical breast issue, and an unscheduled trip to SF

Today I'm grateful for...
A long and warm summer
My healthy, strong, and pain free back
Lovely kids
Good friends to bond with

Every time I look back at the last blog it surprises me how much time has gone by. I seem to be logging all the trials, events, and health of Lulu, but I'm always amazed to find out that it's been a week or sometimes two since I last updated the site. I think as the intensity of Lulu's cancer treatment subsides, I have so much more to occupy my time? I really enjoy putting down in writing my thoughts and many times I can't wait to sit down late in the evenings to jot down the weeks events.

This weekend, I had been looking forward to a long time coming fishing trip with two of my best friends Mike, and Randy. I was disappointed when we got under way just after 4 AM Friday morning after a lot of trepidation on whether or not the whole thing was going to happen? It has been a tradition for the guys to get away each fall (the best time of the year to chase the big trout in most lakes in Nevada), so I had been looking forward to this trips for months. The weekend turned out to be a great time for us three to kid each other, talk about previous fishing adventures, and catch a number of large healthy trout. Since the lake that we had planned on fishing this year was 4.5 hours from Reno, we had a lot of time for conversation (apart from the political discussions, most of it was good). We have been doing these trips for a really long time (12 or so years), so as we drove home on Sunday afternoon, I was feeling a little blue, knowing that this just might be the last trip together? I have realized that while I enjoy the company of these two great friends, my passion no longer lies in fly fishing. I just don't get the enjoyment that I once used to out of throwing flies at hungry foraging trout. I knew even if this was the last trip together, the numbers of future trips was more then likely going to be limited? I feel the pull of moving on to other endeavors to fulfill my leisure tank, but at the same time I feel the sadness of lose the great friend that's been such a huge part of my life (my grandfather thought me to fly fishing a the young age of 7, and I've been at it ever since). I was also nervous about returning home after 3 days away, because I got a phone call on Sunday morning that Lulu was feeling well and that she was having pain with her right breast. I was apprehensive about what the extent of the issue was during the whole ride back to Reno.

Upon my arrival I knew that sometime big was happening to Lulu, because both my parents were at my house when I arrived. My parents aren't usually over at the house unless were having a family dinner, or celebrating a birthday, so I had a good idea that Lulu was feeling well and needed their help? After a short discussion about the weekend and the kids, Lulu explained the problems that she was experiencing these last two or three days. She voiced that she had started feel as if she was coming down with the flu last Friday, but because she is taking 600 mg of Ibuprofen daily she felt that the symptoms were getting better, but that she felt confident that her right breast was infected and it was very red and swollen (I later found out she had a cellulitis and that she was having infected discharge from her breast). Lulu had been in contact with the doctor on call at the cancer clinic on Saturday night, and he told her that she needed to be seen right away (to Lulu this meant Monday). I felt badly that I was here for her, and wished that she had told me the extent of the issue while we discussed happenings Saturday night? Lulu just told me that she did want to worry me. She had made all the arrangements for us to travel down to the UCSF clinic on Monday morning to have the infection assessed, so I spent the evening wondering what was next?

Lulu and I awoke quite early on Monday morning to prepare for our trip down to SF (and no I didn't have to listen to marriage CD's this trip). We got into a heavy discussion about life, and past relationships during the drive down. The time flew by, and before we knew it the Prius was turning into the parking garage of the UCSF cancer clinic. As I parked I was thinking about the 60 plus trips down, and the total cost of parking alone? I did the calculations in my head and came out with some where around a total of $1200 for all the times we parked in the garage. (for anyone who's had the pleasure of parking in SF you know that the cost of parking is astronomical, on one trip to the holiday inn half of our hotel cost for the two nights stay was parking fees). Anyway, once I got parked and cleared my out the thoughts of trying to buy a parking lot in SF, we made our way into the clinic. Oh, and by the way the city just happened to be in the midst of the hottest day of the year, 86f, and sunny. I only put that in because I don;t think that we had seen the sun on one of our trips down since last winter, and the warmest day until now was around 70f?

Lulu and I arrived at approximately 11:20 AM, and because her surgeon was in surgery that morning we needed to wait until he was finish for her to be evaluated. Three hours later, after a nap, three potty runs, and many sticks of gum, he make it just in time to relieve us from shear boredom. After a break exam and questioning, it was determined that Lulu did indeed have a infection in the right breast, that the healing wound had lost some of the closing sutures, and that the skin graph looked frail in the area. After a consultation with another surgeon (resident?) and the attending nurse, the decision was made to re-suture the area immediately using local anesthesia, administer oral antibiotics for 10 days for the infection, and then follow up in a week. (they also were discussing having to reopen the breast and replacing the tissue graph, cleaning the infection within the breast and re-closing again under general anesthesia, but to our relief that was put on hold as a back up plan for now). Another 15 minutes and Lulu had a newly sutured breast, and was released from the clinic. We were both quite relieved that we weren't expected to return this Friday for surgery to repair the breast as the doctors were discussion just a few minutes earlier. I could tell that Lulu was relieved to be done and a diagnosis made. I think that she was happy that there was actually something wrong with her breast, because it validates her pain and sick feeling the last three days?

On the drive back (the traffic was tolerable, better then most trips during rush hour), Lulu called the office to inform them to re-schedule the patients that were scheduled to see her on Wednesday and Thursday, because she had been told to "take it easy" for the next week at the very least. For this is one time that I see Lulu is listening. I think that secretly she is looking forward to another week of recovery, since it's only been a short three weeks since her last surgery?

We arrived home, and I spent some reflective time thanking God for taking care of my wife and family, and giving Lulu's body the powers to heal. I know that she'll move past this minor hiccup and be stronger at the end of it all.