It is over-- the surgery that is!

May the God of all grace, who called us to His eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after you have suffered a while, perfect, establish, strengthen and settle you. 1 Peter 5:10

To say that I had a week from you know where is an understatement! I will try to spare you all the details here are some highlights. We came home from DisneyWorld to Bennett throwing up in the car. Everyone got sick with a cold (except me!) while we were gone, but Bryan's just wouldn't go away. He ended up at the doctor Wed for antibiotics. Tuesday Brayden got into a little trouble at school (stealing a few milks from the lunch line and poking holes in them- among other things) of course that was the day I volunteered for the "100th day of school" so I got a great conference with the teacher and Brayden after school. Lovely. So needless to say my emotions were on the rise. I had to pick my parents up from the airport that night (11pm) and...I got a ticket running a red light. One of those photo tickets, so I couldn't even talk myself out of it!! Turn the dial up on the emotions a couple more notches.
Then Wednesday morning Brayden woke up vomiting. He had the stomach flu-- totally sick all day, non-stop. I sent Bennett to gramma and grandpa's so I could focus on him. Poor baby.
I did my best to mentally prepare for my surgery Thursday morning...but as I woke Bryan up at 6:30am Thursday morning (in Brayden's room because he needed someone to sleep with him) Bryan was now completely sick with the flu (stomach and all!). Emotions on overload now!
Plan B-- gramma is taking me to surgery. Grandpa is taking Bennett to school. Brayden is staying home to take care of daddy. Is this crazy or what.
So now surgery day. I arrive calm-- or atleast that is what I was telling myself. Of course all I could think about "will Bennett go to school?". "Does mom have something to read while she waits for me?" "How is Bryan doing?" "Can Brayden manage staying home with a sick dad?" I check in. They send me down to the basement to pay my co-pay. Weird. But I do it. Then back to the surgical center. Where they take my vitals, check me in. Then they wheel me down to radiology where I am to have a guide wire placed into my left breast for the surgeon to follow to find the cancer.
I am sitting in the waiting room of "women's imaging" with my mom when a nurse (Linda) comes out and walks over to me-- no words!-- and checks my arm band to make sure I am who I say I am. Then she gets behind my wheel chair and wheels me away from my mom back to into an exam room. Still no words. Then she whispers to me that she has been sick and has no voice so she will be using words sparingly. She tells me that she will be taking a photo (like a mammogram) then will bring in the doctor (radiologist) who will insert the needle (which has a wire inside it)-- then they will take a few more photos, release the wire from the needle and we will be done.
Well it didn't go quit that easily! It wasn't the needles or the wire that made me faint three times! But for some reason the staff (Linda and Dr. Radiology) who made me feel like they weren't quit sure what they were doing. Or that I was having the procedure done with the right equipment. You see, I was sitting up at a mammography machine on a round stool with wheels. She needed me to stay perfectly still- not to move a muscle. And even though she locked the wheels of the chair, I wasn't quite confident I could do that sitting up. With my core needle biopsy I was laying on a table-- it was very easy to be still. And the equipment was all under the table so I never had to move-- they moved the equipment around ME. Not ME around the equipment. So Dr. radiology inserted the needle-- Linda takes one photo then tells me she is going to decompress the mammogram machine. She needs me to stay still-- so I don't move the needle. While she is doing this she is looking a bit concerned-- saying "oops, whoa, hold on" while trying to get the machine up and over the needle. She manages to do it. Then she tells me she is going to roll me back away from the machine while "I" have to hold my own breast (with the needle in it!) up while she shifts the machine. Well as soon as she started to roll the chair away from the machine I started to feel faint-- I told her I didn't feel well and down I went!!! Next thing I knew I was on the floor with about 3 nurses over me with very worried looks on their faces.
After trying to sit up twice I finally managed to get back up to the machine and get one more photo. Then the doctor released the needle so only the wire was left. But down I went again. No final photo.
I felt miserable. Cold. Shaking. Scared. And just wanting to get this over with. The surgical nurse was now by my side and she wheeled me (this time on a gurney) back up to the surgical center. I was ready for surgery. Or so they say I was. I still am not sure the wire was in the right spot. With all the fainting and moving I did how can they be sure the wire didn't move???
In the surgical center they finally gave me some oxygen (which I had asked for while on the floor in radiology) and that helped a lot. Then they wheeled me into surgery about 20 minutes later. I don't remember anything-- but they say the surgeon got clean margins visually. And I was home by 1pm.

Its been two days now and I am feeling great. The first night home was miserable. Just a post-op migraine and nausea with Bryan laid up with the flu. Thank God for my parents who had the kids!
I have a bit of soreness now. But nothing too painful. Just focusing now on getting the family better. And looking forward to our post-op appointment with the surgeon to get all our questions answered on if they got all the cancer.

Thank you all for your prayers and support.