Doctor Visit/Celebration!

I saw my plastic surgeon today, and he agreed that I was very swollen, but that he could do nothing about it. It may have to do with the chemo treatments. I do have a binder that I can wear around my waist that reduces the pain and swelling temporarily, but it is really just a matter of time before the swelling goes down. He did say that I looked "on track" otherwise. I was concerned about another small surgical procedure that I may need to repair a cosmetic problem caused by the drains near the lymph node site under my right arm, but Dr Noel said that he would do nothing until six months after radiation is over in February, which puts me into August of 2008. Radiation evidently changes the skin and it needs time to heal afterwards. He seemed to think that it was still possible that this cosmetic problem would resolve itself by that time. When I say cosmetic, I am not concerned just about appearance - I wouldn't bother if it was strictly appearance. This is actually a large roll of extra skin that won't allow me to put my right arm down straight at my side.

My celebration is for our daughter, Emily, who has just found out that she has been selected to go to Greece for two weeks in May with sixteen students (total) from the Honors Program at UL! One of her roommates, Jessi Harre, has also been selected. This semester they will study the art and architecture of the sites they will visit, specializing in one of the five sites on the itinerary. When they actually go to Greece, they will teach the others in the group about their "specialty site". Congratulations, Jessi and Emily!