Shermance's Cancer Fight: In Full Recovery Mode

All was well this morning

Shermance is in full recovery mode now, which means getting lots of rest, shifting from a liquid diet to gradually more solid food, weaning off the intense pain meds, starting her arm exercises, and keeping her wounds sterile for best healing. For the next several days she’ll need to get 12 or more hours of solid sleep, so that means keeping the kidos quiet and out of the room.

For our boys, it doesn’t seem fair that our golden retriever, Carmel (Happy 1^st B-day on Mon), gets to sleep on the bed, but they don’t. She knows something is up and she doesn’t want to leave Shermance out of her sight right now. It started when we were at the hospital. Carmel acted out by digging into the already-wrapped presents under the Christmas tree. A few small items were completely destroyed, but for the most part just the packages were damaged. Since we’ve returned she hasn’t tried to chew on any gifts, thank goodness.

As for her diet, we maybe tried to push the switch to solid foods too fast, resulting in her not able to keep down her meal. The pain meds irritate her stomach so we are trying to switch to ibuprofen as long as the pain is not too intense. It will also make her life a bit more regularJ, and keep her from being so dizzy and disoriented. The "bad nurse" at the hospital told us that we needed to "act like she just had major sugery". I guess we want to move forward as quickly as possible.

She is moving very slowly and can’t lift her arms even as high as her shoulders. It will take some time to get there, so she has exercises 3x a day including a glamour pose and inching her fingers up a wall.

At least twice a day, we open up the dressing and empty the fluid drains that are necessary after such a surgery. While in there everything gets cleaned with alcohol and checked for proper drainage. The biggest risk at this point is infection so we are being extremely cautious and careful while dressing the wounds. She can only be given sponge baths to be extra cautions as well.

The best news today came from Dr. Bombach who informed Shermance that the prelim results show no signs of cancer in either the removed breast tissue or in the lymph nodes. Those “wet” results will be confirmed tomorrow with full results. It’s great, promising news! Our fingers are crossed for no need for radiation.

The support from friends, family, and coworkers continues to lift Shermance’s spirits. She is looking great and on her way to recovery. Thank you! Please keep us in your prayers!