Brad & Noelle Koosmann & Family: Recovery After Surgery

It's been a busy couple of days! No matter how much I prepared for heading to the cities for surgery, it still felt like it snuck up on me. Brad's parents seem to have ESP and they took Brendan and Megan overnight on Tuesday evening, giving me some extra time to pack and organize, and Wednesday we headed to the cities when Brad got home from work. The kids are staying with Brad's sister, Jill, and her family over the weekend and during the following week, while I recooperate under my mom's watchful care at my grandparent's house and Brad heads home to work. On Wednesday evening, we dropped the kids off at Jill and Chuck's, had some supper with them, and got outta dodge before the emotions got too much for us. The kids are having a great time, but we sure do miss them.

Brad and I made another date night out of our last evening before surgery. We stopped at Olive Garden and shared a piece of white chocolate raspberry cheesecake (my favorite naughty dessert!), we went to Rosedale Mall and walked around, people-watching for awhile, and we grabbed a carnitas bowl from Chipotle for a combination evening snack and lunch for Brad. We settled in at my grandparent's house, setting up the rocking chair I'll be living in for the next couple of weeks and organizing the stuff I brought from home. The most surprising (and welcome) event was that we both slept well that night. After months of not sleeping very well, I'll take whatever small victories I can get!

We had a lazy morning and we headed to the hospital a little early, stopping by Minnesota Oncology for a quick hug from Nurse Jane and Dr. Z (to start the day off right) and got to pre-op right on time. I did the whole pre-op routine (gown, IV, meeting with docs and nurses, etc.) and then they let visitors back in. I spent a little time with Brad, and then my sister, Liz, and our pastor, Pastor Tim, joined us for a prayer before surgery. Then they whisked me away. I started feeling the affects of the drugs before I even made it into the surgical room. I remember a large, bright operating room where the nurses were counting supplies, I transferred to the operating bed...and that's the last thing I remember until I opened my eyes in post-op.

The general surgery took about two hours, the reconstructive surgery took about one-and-a-half hours, and I was in post-op for two-and-a-half hours before they moved me to my room. Once settled into the hospital room bed, Brad and my parents sat with me for awhile as I shook off the anesthesia. By this time it was about 7:30pm. Brad settled in to stay with me, my parents headed home after some visiting, and we enjoyed the surprise visit of my Aunt Liz. At this point, the days and nights, nurses and meds, etc. start getting a little jumbled. We had wonderful nurses who, along with Brad, took excellent care of me. I'm not responding much to narcotics, but the muscle relaxers and basic painkillers are helping me, and each day is a little better. I have three drains, and between the drains and the expanders from the reconstruction, that is where the majority of my pain comes from. I'm able to rest fairly comfortably and have been pushing myself to walk around and do my deep breathing exercises as much as possible. Nausea comes and goes (depending on the pain level), but I've been resting as much as I can, which seems to help.

As Brad said last night, we received the news that the cancer in my axillary nodes is more extensive that they originally thought, but Dr. Johnson was able to get good margins (remove all of the cancer) which is the good news we wanted to hear. Ultimately, our findings just indicate that we will have to do radiation over my chest, armpit and neck (a larger area than originally thought, with the possibility of greater reaction to the radiation) followed by five years of hormone therapy, several additional surgeries, and watching my cancer areas extra-carefully. Brad and I spent some time together last night, processing the news and now we're choosing to move on, concentrating on my recovery from surgery and my follow-up appointments over the next couple of weeks. We are in good spirits and I thank God for Brad's ceaseless support. He's been taking such good care of me!

Thank you so much for all of the thoughts, prayers, cards and well-wishes. I swear, I'm the luckiest person alive, with all of the amazing people around me. You are all my daily blessings.

Brad and I, enjoying some white chocolate raspberry cheesecake on the evening before surgery.

All dolled up in pre-op. The IV start was one of the worst I've had (note to self: should have gotten a port!), but that gown I'm wearing was the neatest thing! The tube near my right elbow blew air into the gown at whatever temperature I specified, keeping me nice and warm in the cold hospital basement.