Day 63 - Thursday April 19th -Totally Tubular and not quite!

This morning I have put away a full basket of clean laundry and did the breakfast dishes.
Home Care, the lovely Jen arrives at 10:30 a.m as she said she would.   She is great, knows her stuff and has a good sense of humour.  Her humour evident in her noticing Dash needing to be right there on the bed to see what's going on and she had commented on the way he hops up the stairs...actually looking like he's hopping.  He actually seems to enjoy her presence and begins licking her arm as she is attending to my dressings.   I call for Alex to come get Dash, he's good but perhaps a little too friendly in light of Jen trying to do what has to be done.  He waits downstairs with Alex.
One of the first things she does is check our 'Drainage' records.  I am hoping to have the tube removed today, as it seems to be slowing up quite a lot.  She rises from the page in our little book and reminds me I need a TOTAL output of 30 ml.'s or less in a 24 hour period before it can be removed.  John and I misunderstood that, expecting anything consistent recording of just 30 mls. or less would give us rejoice in having the tube extricated.   Oh, oh dear, so not today.

Jen continues upbeat and announces how pleased she is with finding everything looking so good.  All is healing well, nice and clean at the incision and the opening for the drain.  Thanks to the arrival of additional med supplies she uses waterproof tape over the dressings to afford me my first shower in six days!!  YAY!
Our visit wraps up and Jen bids adieu 'til next time; likely Saturday and it could be Michelle or Sarah.  I embrace that this is also a little social time when I haven't felt very social of lately.
I've had mixed emotions today, one such emotion is JOY, that comes from a call from my family doctor.   I so appreciate that she called and recognized the need for me to know as soon as the information was available.  Test results from this surgery are in and all is clear!  YAY, no melanoma presented in the lymph nodes removed!  Exciting!  I thank her for my not having to wait until the 30th to hear this good news.  She says there will be more to discuss with Dr. S but she really felt I needed this news now.  A little happy dance ensues!
 xo