Hi all – Just wanted to give you a quick update on how Rachel’s doing. We’re almost a week out from the exchange and things are going steadily better day-by-day! This morning Rachel had her post-op appointment and was able to get the drain out 🙂 Overall, everything’s looking super healthy and barely looks operated on. Which is pretty amazing considering what Rachel went through six days ago.
With the drain out, pain culprit #1 is out of the way. In a couple of days Rachel’s strict schedule of pain meds will taper off – and if today’s any indication, her energy will probably rebound quickly too. Tonight she was able to shower for the first time since the surgery (I swear she wasn’t stinky one bit, she had me check a few times so I can confirm that fact).
Over the past week, we’ve had a steady stream of nursing school homies stop by to hang out. This has been awesome for both Rachel and me. Having these amazing friends over at the house has allowed me to run errands, get some needed sleep and gives Rachel an enthusiastic buddy to watch trashy reality TV with. They’ve also been able to change the occasional drain and help Rachel get from the couch to the baño and back. The UCLA nursing student community is incredible and we appreciate you so much!
But being a little loopy and having acute pain hasn’t stopped Rachel from being the badass that she normally is. She’s continued to be an amazingly supportive to all those she loves during this past week. In between naps, she’s been on her phone staying on top of everything from school, appointments, bills and keeping family up-to-date on how she’s doing.
Through this entire journey I’ve been completely blown away by the strength of my wife. No matter the challenge Rachel just steps up like a boss. (Gonna brag for a moment.)
Most ridiculously challenging academic quarter ever (I know you’re feeling me MCEN’s) six weeks after mastectomy? No problem: she passed all her courses handedly and served awesomely as president of her graduate nursing association.
Three physically challenging clinical rotations while recovering from mastectomy? Not an issue: Rachel helped women give birth just days after starting physical therapy and came home from every exhausting shift more excited for her future as a nurse, being able serve patients everyday.
Keeping focused after receiving news she had gnarly mystery tissue damage and then a resulting literal hole in the boob – and receiving the latter news a week before finals and going into surgery? Ain’t no thang: Rachel made it through all this by slugging it out every single day with an amazing attitude that got more positive even as the intensity mounted.
And not to mention that she absolutely loves chatting with and hopefully helping anyone that hits her up about mastectomies/cancer prevention/cancer treatments.
So I’m pretty sure I’m married to superwoman. I’m cool with that not only because I get a superwoman nurse as my bestie and life partner. (But also because I’m expecting all of our children to be super athletes who’ll surely hook us up with their signing bonus money). Not sure how Rachel does it and over the past few days I’ve been able step back a bit and just observe this woman’s greatness.
Funky Genes 