(Burke posting)

Krista is home from surgery. It went as it was supposed to go. I don’t want to say “successful” because it’s all very painful and I know Krista is grieving. But the cancer was removed and doesn’t appear to have spread.

We were out the door at 5 am this morning and then I was home by 8 to get Lucas off to school (he had a nurse hanging out with him in the meantime, and Aunt Ashley had Ida for an overnight and took her to school). Things went smoothly in pre-op. Nice nurses. I had to pee and they found me the bathroom. Krista got to wear a big heated gown called the Bair Hugger. The anesthesiologist expertly placed an IV with no pain.

As we were sitting there I kept thinking about how Krista and I know our way around a hospital. As much as I hate that this is happening I find some solace in the fact that we have the experience to navigate waiting rooms and complex conversations with doctors and f’d up health insurance systems. And, as we’ve talked about, at least it’s one of us this time instead of our kid. Though in reality that doesn’t make it any easier.

By 10:30 am I got a call from the surgeon saying that everything went as planned. In addition to the cancer they removed three lymph nodes which will be biopsied in the coming days, and we’ll know whether or not the cancer has spread within about a week. By 12:30 Krista was discharged and by 1:00 we were home having lunch. A old family friend of Krista’s had advised that she try to avoid the “drive-through surgery.” I guess that’s kinda what we got but I’m still relieved to have her home instead of staying in the hospital over night.

More than anything, it was amazing to see how brave and steadfast Krista was this morning. (And clever — she even brought her own marker to draw some arrows and make doubly sure the surgeon got the correct boob!) I know how much she doesn’t want to be going through this and am in awe of the way she’s handled it all.

Finally, I just want to say how grateful we are to receive all the love and support from our community. Krista has been overwhelmed (in a good way) by all the messages and prayer circles and offers of help. This morning I felt a bit of that overwhelm when people kept texting me directly (knowing that Krista was in surgery) with beautiful messages of support. It made me cry.

In the coming days we’ll be asking for more of that support. Hopefully we can come up with some good tasks to keep you all busy 🙂