My daughter's cancer/ surgery journey to me Feb 2013

On February 7th the world stopped for me.  While sitting in a waiting room to hear what was happening, seemed to be a lifetime.     A six hour surgery turned to eight hours.  She had thought she bit her tongue and it was just sore from that. It turned out to be a tumor in her tongue, the doctors believe they got it soon enough, still needed surgery.  They removed the lymph nodes in her neck, ear to ear, also the tumor in her tongue.  She says her tongue looks like a mitten now.  The tongue was stage 2, right lymph node stage 1, left side none.  Sitting in ICU, the nurses were really great, watching every move, talking to her, even tho she couldn't with all the equipment attached.  Day 2: they kept her comfortable, talking and laughing while she wrote stuff down, joking with them.
She was at Madigan Hospital which is a Army facilities, also a teaching hospital.  She told us what happened at 6:00am, a gaggle of new doctors came to check on her, flipped on the overhead light, woke her up.  Since she was on a breathing tube, couldn't talk, flipped them off, for waking her and poking her.  Funny thing the next morning while we were there, the gaggle of doctors hung by the door but didn't venture into the room, just the main doctor.  By the afternoon of day 2, the ICU nurses had her in a chair, she was looking tired, but good. Day 3: moved to a regular room, by wheelchair.  The first new nurse we encounter wasn't thrilled.  Said she was to much work. We are like a: you got to kidding me mood!  Her vitals checked every hour, a suction tube for her (daughter) if daughter needed to use it, and a feeding tube,  nurse said that was a lot work.  I'm thinking we are on the wrong floor for care, we were not, I found out later.  The night time nurses came in, did everything without blinking an eye.  Next day 4:  same first nurse, I was exhausted, we always double checked what they plan to do with meds, she has allergies.  There were some questions about incorrect meds, and doses she was almost given.  By the end of day 4, she is up and walking around the hall to her new room :-) new night time nurse great.  Day 5: new day nurse good one, having clear liquids, moving a lot more, joking,laughing.  Night nurse was great again.  Day 6: I come home to relieve critter sitters, get report she is doing great, hubby had nurses change linens, get her pj bottoms, clean up, she also had a tube removed.  Doctor very pleased with her progress,  plan to remove drain tube tomorrow, more liquids and very soft food.  Husband said she moving around a lot more, less pain meds, now in pill form, has her sense of humor back. Day 7: second drain tube removed, feeding tube removed, really feeling better.  I talked to her, she makes comment about the tube is six feet long that came out of stomach, the drain tubes hurt a little bit too, but glad there are gone.  Doctor said she is doing great, releasing her tomorrow, a week earlier than planned.  Great night!  Day 8: Waiting on doctor, gives ok to be released and sent home instead of a week stay at the Fisher House.  At last, IV removed, she is ready to run out the door.(side note about iv's, she blew 17 of them, 11 during surgery, 3 before they even started, that doesn't count false starts trying to find the vein.) I get a call, she tells me they are on I-5 going North fast........  Lol..  She and dad stayed at her house, first evening, plan to stay one more night, before heading to Oregon.  She plans to visit her co-workers also before heading South.
I'm still tired, but not like last week,  I maybe got 24 hours total in 6 days.  First night home, went to bed at midnight, dogs woke me  up at 1:30 am, one of cats is meowing loudly.  I get to him to find him dying, grab clothes, towel to wrap him in, he died in my arms within a few minutes of a heart attack the vet said.  Another sleepless evening, last night I got 6 hours, which I can survive on. I will be so happy to have the world start moving again.  Take nothing for granted.