1 drain down, 1 left

Probably she could have taken both, but you never know, so I'll go back on Thursday to have the other one out. She said there was no sign of infection and guessed that my fevers might be from stuff in my lungs leftover from anesthesia. She said I was probably not clearing them completely.

Funny thing is, I woke stronger today (despite a fever) and decided to bike -- which turns out to be just what the doctor ordered! She said to get back to my regular exercise routine. She said no reason not to bike with the Babes now if I feel up to it and swimming I should be able to do a couple of days after the last drain is removed. (That should happen on Thursday, so Saturday.)

She asked about my range of motion, which isn't bad. I can't reach the right arm straight up, but I'm just leaning about a foot. It might not impact swimming too much -- I'll see. They made a PT appt for me -- the first available, on 11/17.

The surgeon also pointed out that it's time for me to get a mammogram now, on my left breast. I was thinking I should have it in 6 months, but in fact during these past 6 months (since my last mammo) I've been dealing with the OTHER breast. And she looked at my mammos, because I voiced a clear lack of confidence in the use of mammograms in general.

That was interesting. She said they were good mammograms, and that she could see the cancer clearly on the "clean" mammo I had last March. She showed it to me and said "LOok, can't you see it?" The two tumors were lit up. She showed it to me on the previous mammogram too (2006) but said that it was easy to see in that one mostly in retrospect, because she knew exactly where to look for the cancer, from the later mammos.

So while she didn't exactly SAY that the Arlington Hospital people screwed up......

Meanwhile I'm trying not to peek at the election returns. I voted 2 weeks early in case of surgical complications. (Even minor complications, had they kept me at the Mayo, would have had me in the wrong STATE -- and here I am in a swing state this time!!!) I am sad that Obama's grandma missed this day.