Picture-Palooza...

Today was a pretty decent day. My friend Kate drove in last night and has brought much good cheer with her. She helped me win a battle over a PICC line last night (which I believe should not be inserted bedside) and we were rewarded with a perfect new IV this morning despite the fact that las night I was told there was not a vein to be found on either arm. Good friends near and far are lifting my spirits daily. I'm walking up a storm. Wish I had a pedometer to track, but I'm up to 4-5 brisk walks of 20-30 minutes each per day.

My days are brightened by the look and smell of lovely flowers such as these...
And the view at the foot of my bed is rather uplifting as well. Happy feet and lovely children continue to motivate me to try to get healthy and home as soon as possible.

Here are some of the gorey details. I started out with the following:

1) 31 stitches down my abdomen. Basically split from top to bottom. Belly button permanently gone (it was mentioned in the biopsy report as one of the "samples" that were submitted for analysis)

2) 3 stitches to close my colostomy. Yay!

3) 6 Jackson-Pratt drains to remove blood and fluid collection from the various surgery sites.

4) 6 EKG leads so they can constantly monitor my heartrate and hassle me when I exert myself too much. They tell me the fastest way out of here is to walk-walk-walk, but if my heartrate hits 160 they want me to sit-sit-sit.

5) 1 central line, removed about 5 days after surgery.

6) NOT a tracheotomy scar. Don't know what it is. Woke up with it in the ICU and nobody will fess us to having done it. Nice, eh?

7) Connection to my medi-port.

So here's a little photo-montage of my journey. Here I am the morning of my surgery, only slightly apprehensive...

This is the first shot in the ICU while I still had the breathing tube. Perhaps not my finest super-model moment.

Day 2 in the ICU. Breathing tube is out, but really not looking a whole lot better. At least I can tell you that I felt better than I looked here.

Day 3, still in the ICU, but ready to hit the road. Trevor's doggie and I have become constant companions. He's the only one the nurses haven't tried to throw out of my room.

Day 4, out of the ICU and into a regular room. Don't Doggie and I look so much happier?

Day 5, starting to feel like myself again and styling in some fancy scrubs I bought on the internet in preparation for this extended hospitalization.

Day 6...Ahhh...finally back to the old me. Hope you don't mind that I photoshopped out the NG tube. It was just so unsightly and detracted from my otherwise lovely appearance.

And there you have it, my week in pictures. Be sure to go out on the internet and post some pictures of your worst days too. Because once it's on the internet, it lives forever.