Note: Silver Linings is now published. You can go to the Silver Linings page to learn more or click the link to your right to buy the book. 

Excerpt:

Post-Surgery ‘How I’m doing’ update September 14, 2008.

Missed a pain pill in the night and paid for it, but I am having less pain today, so I’m going to start gradually taking less of the painkillers. The nurse very helpfully reminded me on Friday that the pills only work for 4 hours, so don’t spread out the timing, lessen the dose. So that is what I am trying.

I am tremendously more alert today, which rocks.

It actually started to sink in that the little assassins in my boob, that cancer bomb ticking away inside me is GONE!!! With the nodes out, it’s even possible that all the cancer is out of me entirely. While I still have to go through treatment it was sort of awesome to realize that the lumps, the horrible balls of cancer, are not in me anymore. Hooray!

Drains still driving me insane.

Later that same day….

It wasn’t time to lower the painkiller dosage. I lowered my dosage during one time slot, taking 75% of what I’d taken before. I didn’t reduce the other medication, so the total reduction was even less than 25%. And it took me all day to recover from it. I even got nauseated again. But so here we are, recovered. Now I’m going to have to ask for a refill of this stuff, dammit. I was hoping to just be better by now. Better enough, I mean. Oh well, I’m not and that’s that. I was going to call tomorrow to ask about the pathology results anyway. Hey, at least I’m taking a lot less Ativan at the moment.

/I’ve got silver linings falling out of my pockets today. Don’t step on my optimism.