Out of the Hospital!!

After a little over a week, I finally made my way out of Keck Medical Center at USC. I'd felt ready to go for at least 36 hours, but one last pesky JP drain along with another surgery that kept Dr. Genyk busy until 11:30pm on Thursday night conspired to keep me cooped until Friday. My mom and I definitely started getting a little stir-crazy, frequently asking my nurses to disconnect me from my IV so we could go on "adventures" throughout the hospital in my wheelchair. On one of these trips around the Medical Center, we decided to venture outside, and there, we saw Dr. Genyk walking from the parking lot to his office. This was yesterday, Friday, at about 4pm. He had promised to be by "by the afternoon," so by 4pm, that promise was starting to head south. But there he was! My doctor, walking quickly and immediately spotting me in a speeding wheelchair, cloaked in a Duke blanket. 

"Heeey!!" I exclaimed as I threw up my hands. Moments later, Dr. Genyk scooped me up in a hug, apologized for not coming by the night before, and again promising to be by my hospital room in 30 minutes. I told him that I was leaving the hospital with the JP drain intact if I didn't see him by then. 

About 20 minutes later, he was in my room, checking out my incision wound one last time, authorizing his residents to remove my JP drain (a painless experience given the location and type of drain), and officially giving word that I was ready to be let loose on the world. He gave me a hug and a kiss and told me to be good. I told him that I would.

And about an hour later, I was free. It's such a surreal feeling: being out in the world, among the flocks of people who didn't just spend their last week in a hospital, battling cancer and recovering from a major surgery. I sat at the Veggie Grill with my parents, Sabrina, and Rhett, looking around with amazement at these people. What different lives we lead, especially when it comes to health. Some could go their whole lives without a trip to the hospital. At the age of 30, I've become an expert at hospitals and surgeries. Different strokes for different folks, I guess! After dinner, we headed to the movie theater to see that exorcism movie, The Devil Inside. It's my "thing" to go see a super freaky movie hours after being released from the hospital. After my Sugarbaker surgery, it was The Rite. Don't judge me for my love of horror movies. :) 

All in all, the last week has been a great one. Surgery wasn't exactly what we had expected it would be (more on that later), but as Dr. Lenz says, everything we have done and have learned at this point is "all positive." We have gotten a handle on my disease and where tiny specks of it still lurk, and we have a plan to get me into remission. And I have an even better incision scar. I'll show it to you soon!!