StarDate April 3rd, 2008

My clinic visit is Feb. 29th. And now I wait for surgery, April 3rd. I push breast cancer out the door and go about my life. The highlight is a business trip to San Francisco combined with a weekend of visiting friends. San Francisco is like diving into a swimming pool of endorphins. I love the views, the neighborhoods, the restaurants, the shops, the cable cars, the F line. We find fantastic food, visit Sonoma, the coast and go buzzing up and down the hills in the city. I hold on to the high after I return, knowing I will need something to keep me up.

April 3rd arrives. I get to the hospital early because I need preparation for the lymph node biopsy that they will do during the lumpectomy. Then surgery gets delayed. Finally, around 2pm, they start to get me ready for the operating room. By this time I am famished since of course I wasn't allowed to eat. The surgeon stops by. Surgeons are quite chatty (sarcasm there). "Ready?" "Yep". As in, I was ready 3 hours ago. Then the anesthesiologist stops by. He takes a careful history and is very thorough. I'm impressed. I'm also surprised at the baby face. Boy is he cute.

The surgery happens, I wake up in recovery and I hear the nurse laughing. Then she says to me "Don't worry, people say the funniest things in the recovery room." But she won't tell me what I said.

I go home and pretty much go to sleep with my painkillers, who are my new teddy bear. The phone rings and Jim takes care of it each time. The next day I am doing better so when one friend calls I take the phone. Her first words, after how are you, are "So I hear the anesthesiologist was really hot." "Where did you hear that from?" I remember thinking it but I would never have said that out loud for my husband to hear. She giggles and says "Your husband".

Oh boy.