Dad's doing OK

Dad had his surgery today, and it went as well as expected. He was pretty groggy, even after we got back from going out for supper. Mom and I stayed until about 8 p.m., and my brother stayed awhile longer until Dad told him to go on back home. I had my herceptin this afternoon, and we're shorthanded at work, so I didn't get to be with him when he went in for surgery, just afterwards. And actually, my nurse had trouble with my port today, so we were all wondering who was going to get done first, me or dad.

Dad was feeling kind of nauseous after they brought him to his room, but his doctor wouldn't actually prescribe anything for that unless he threw up. But it's hard to throw up when you haven't eaten anything for almost 24 hours! It was kind of hard to sit there and watch him in that state where your body wants to wake up but can't quite break out of the anesthesia yet. I guess that's how my folks felt when I had my surgery. It does help to know that someone you love is there, though.

He'll have to stay in the hospital at least a couple of days, so I'll probably go visit during my lunch breaks and after work. My brother will stay here at least through the end of the week, and Mom is taking some vacation time, so at least he'll have plenty of help when he gets back home.

I also had my MUGA scan again Monday morning, and it's down slightly again, to 50 percent, but still good enough to continue treatment. Thursday, I meet with someone from the hospital's fitness center about starting on their exercise program for cancer patients. I need to do something to start getting back in shape and dropping some of the habits I've fallen into the last few months. Sure, during treatment, I needed to rest in the morning instead of working out before getting ready for work, but not now. And sometimes during treatment I ate whatever and whenever because I needed to keep my weight up, but I need to quit snacking so much now. My work clothes are getting awful tight! Maybe this program will inspire me to get back into more healthy habits.

You know what's really hard? Going someplace like the hospital here where everyone treats you with such great care and respect, and then having to go to work where everyone is full of bad attitude and hard work gets no respect. It's getting so that there are some people I don't want to say much to because a simple "how are you doing" launches them into a five-minute tirade about their job. Of course, there's probably been some days where I've been that person. I really need to find something new. Or something new needs to find us.