Another Step: Surgery Round 2 Complete

"Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits;" Psalm 103:2 What a fitting close to this morning's devotional. By God's grace, I know something about "his benenfits" for myself and I'm not speaking of just pre-diagnosis but at the time of the diagnosis and throughout this journey of overcoming. The measure of faith I have-one of "His benefits", the smile that has been on my face much of the way through-one of His benefits, after 4 rounds of chemo-a mass that's only 2% of what it was prior to chemo-that's one of His benefit, coming out of 1st surgery without the need of pain medicines and going home the same day-one of His benefits, encouraged just when I needed it (from God directly or via a brother/sister in Christ)-another one of His benefits, being kept by Him in the midst of the storm-one of His benefits, prayer warriors interceding on my behalf-yet another one of His benefits. I could go on and on and on and on and on about the many benefits of God that I can testify to for myself. Speaking of His benefits....yesterday daddy called me all fired up and hyped up enough for us all LOL-I could tell he was going to sleep well that night. Mom and granny were able to drive up to be there with me as well, and when we all walked in I was pleasantly surprised to see a dear big sister in Christ there waiting on us to arrive. Not long after 2 more sisters made it there and then 3 more sisters arrived closer to time for them to roll me back to the O.R.(Operating Room). Shortly after getting settled in the O.R. holding area, I left my area to go to the restroom before they started my IV, and when I came out started walking and was headed towards another patients holding area thinking it was mine, one of the nurses got my attention before I had enough time to reach out and pull back the curtain-Thank God for working that out because I agree with daddy, I may have seen something that I was not trying to see-lol. The nurse accessed my port for the IV this time rather than the usual vein in the arm. I was thankful for that because that meant only one poke rather than multiple attempts. Then I got to thinking and mentioned to daddy that I didn't know if they had that numbing spray or cream like what the chemo nurse used :-/ They didn't have either one of those but they did have novocaine which the nurse injected under the skin at the site of my port. However I still felt it when he was cleaning the area and I asked if it was working-thinking that if I could feel that, then I was definitely going to feel the needle going in to my port-lol, but he reassured me that I would be good. It was funny before the nurse got ready to stick the IV needle in my port, daddy started talkn about my blood pressure-saying that it was good and while he was still talking I said, "daddy you're running interference, trying to distract me" we both fell out laughing-he always tries to distract me and get my mind on something other than the needle that's getting ready to go in me; we laughed about that for a little while-LOL. Because they were running behind schedule yesterday, the nurse thought it would be better if we went ahead and prayed before the surgeon and anesthesiologist came to do the pre-surgery briefing. 3 of my sisters joined us and daddy prayed. Granny came back there to see me one more time before surgery, shortly after 2 more of my sisters arrived-talk about my pre-surgery comic relief LOL-had me rolln. While they were back there mom came back to see me one more time before surgery and then another sister arrived. Can we say CUTTING UP in the operating room holding area. Daddy said the nurses were starting to look at us like we were getting to loud. I figured it was because they were missing out on the fun. One of them asked if we were going to pray (not knowing we had already prayed), but of course I did not mind at all-daddy led the 2nd prayer too before they headed back out to the waiting area. One of the O.R. nurses came out to let us know that it would be a litle while longer....eventually both the surgeon and the anesthesiologist came to give us a pre-surgery breifing. He took a look at the incisions from last week and was surprised to hear that I had not needed any type of pain meds-not even tylenol. I asked the surgeon about the lymph node part of the procedure one more time. He explained the locations of the level 1,2,&3 lymph nodes and said that he was basically going to go in and remove a general section of tissue under my arm including the fatty tissue in which level 1 & 2 lymph nodes are embedded, which he projected to take 1.5hrs. He also mentioned that a drainage tube would be inserted and that they would show me how to take care of it. And the anesthesiologist said he was going to give me something to relax before giving me the meds to knock me out-I have a pretty relaxed and laid back personality-whatever that was he gave me hit me before we even left the part of the holding area I was in-lol. The last conversation I remember in the O.R. was one of the nurses telling me how his wife makes hats-next thing I knew I was thanking God again as I was being rolled into the recovery room. It seems like the nurse I had in the recovery room this time was more patient-let me lay there a little longer. Unlike last time I needed pain meds. And offered me crackers or graham crackers (they didn't do that last time-glad I had my own stash of graham crackers at the time-those who know me-know why this is significant-lol) When the surgeon came out to give a report he said the surgery went well but that it took him a little longer than he thought-3.5hrs rather than 1.5hrs. The nurse helped me get dressed and then showed both my dad and I how to empty the plastic bulb that is attached to the drainage tube. God blessed me to cut the pain medicine does in half and I am going to try to make it without any pain meds this evening-unless the pain gets too bad-I don't like taking prescriptions meds or meds in general. God has blessed me to be in better shape today than yesterday-another step in the journey-another step closer to the VICTORY. "Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits;" Psalm 103:2 TGBTG