Bye Bye Rightie...

Had a great weekend!

First celebrated Aunt Stinky's birthday with my awesome little sister Justice. Sooo fun. She's totally 100% herself and honest which I'm so proud of her for...I wish we could all be like her! Until then, I'm hanging out with more 10 year olds. I have absolutely no anxiety around her at all. She was the perfect visitor for me this weekend. Plus, she chased Austin around and wore him out for me too :)

Another fun sister pic from our wedding. Can't believe we are rounding in on 6 years of marriage this summer! Dang, this makes me really miss my eyebrows and eyelashes :)

Jonathon made a quick trip to Mexico last week and came back just in time to man the Austin ship at home so I could get together with a few of my favorite people in the world. Took a short trip out to Driftwood and enjoyed the pretty scenery and wine (and 2 coolers full of snacks).

I am so sad that I have to miss Ape's bachelorette party next weekend because I will be recovering from surgery. I had to bring weenie gear for us to wear. P.S. weenie headbands are not the most comfortable thing to wear on a bald head.

Right before we left, Brenda reminded me that these would be my last pics with them with my right booby still in tact. They copped a feel to document the occasion. haha. Then some random girls who took the pics for us wanted to jump in the shot too. Who is the strange blonde lady with her hand on the wrong boob?! haha.

Love these girls. Really, I know I say it all the time, but I really do have the best friends who show up for us at the perfect times. I am so thankful for them.

Sooo...as you can see...I did absolutely NOTHING this weekend related to planning for my surgery Monday morning!! I honest to God still do not have my hospital bag packed. Those of you who really know me probably don't believe me. It's true. Last go 'round in November, I had lists of things to do, tons of bags packed for both me and Austin, groceries piled up that would have lasted us a month and spent so much time preparing and preparing for me to be down and out for a while. I decided this time, my crew has things handled (I'm still pretty sure later tonight I'll send out some kind of wacky reminder email with a list of what not to feed my kid). This past 5 months has prepped our family and friends to step in and take over (and for me to give up) some of my duties...and also prepped me to accept that some things that I used to find necessary to do to alleviate my anxiety (like obsessively scrubbing the shower grout or color code my sock drawer) just really aren't all that important right now...not to say that I still don't love me a color coding drawer. I decided that what I really needed this weekend was to rest and have a good time (although I didn't get much rest because April and I stayed up all night giggling), so at least I had a good time :) I'm pretty sure I'll get plenty of drug induced rest tomorrow!

So what's going on with my surgery planned for tomorrow morning??
-It's tomorrow morning (Monday 3/24). I'm having a right breast modified radical mastectomy (surgeon is removing my entire right breast and all of the lymph nodes on my right side).
-No reconstruction surgery this time...just like in November when we first planned surgery, this time I have to be back to be able to handle more chemo treatments asap
-Procedure should take about 1.5 hours
-I'll stay one night in the hospital (more if needed, but doubtful) and come home with 2 drains attached to the wound areas that will probably be removed in about a week. I'll see my surgeon then to check everything out, have the drains removed and start rehab to stretch the area to reduce scar tissue
-Surgeon expects that after a week I will be back to feeling like myself and doing normal things around the house that I can do now. I will have a few restrictions beyond a week and a ton of things that I'm sure will be very annoying, but as long as everything is healing well, the surgery shouldn't be too tough as far as immediate recovery goes
-I see Dr. Jim, my oncologist, next Monday 3/31 to review the pathology reports from the tissue removed during the surgery and game plan what chemo drugs and how many more rounds of them that I will need to take

So...there's a plan...who knows if that will be the plan at 10 am tomorrow, but for now, that's the plan! We are asking for no visitors at the hospital or for the first week at home. My system will really be down for the count between the effects of chemo and surgery and I got a whistle to blow when I need Jonathon to come help me get up. haha. I do think that we will add some things that we can use help with on the care calendar and re-post that later next week if you're looking for ways to give us a hand, but for now, THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU for all of your thoughts and prayers. I can't tell you how much that means to us.

We will be WINNING the night and day here at the Kinchen house. I think I'll start with packing my hospital bag (or watching an episode of Real Housewives of New York)!!

Love
Jenn