Surgery Recovery , Day 1

As we said our prayers before going to bed last night the wee one told me “le bo-bo à Maman est allé au ciel.” (Maman’s illness has gone to heaven, or the sky)


The wee one was up at 7:30 this morning so I was up too, but only half awake. I called the nurse to ask about Pace. The nurse said that she had a good night considering the pain she’s in. However she had a reaction to the morphine and so they had changed to a different injectable pain killer.

When I talked to her Pace about 10:30 was feeling lonely wanted me to come immediately to the hospital to be with her, and I was not in a position to help her out. The wee one knew something is up, and hung on me as if I’d disappear if she let go.

About noon I tried to get her to the babysitter. Oh my goodness, my daughter is a drama queen! The tears and the screaming “Popa nooooooooo, I want to be with youuuuuu! I want to see Maman?!” Then Pierre called, he’s Pace’s Mom’s boyfriend, and we made arrangements for him to drop off Francine, visit with Pace then come trade places for the babysitting the wee one. He got here at 3:00.

Traffic was brutal. It took over 2 hours for a trip that’s usually max 30 minutes.

As I walked into Pace’s room she seemed immediately relieved. Turns out she knew when I had left Oka and was concerned something had happened to me. She was anxious enough that the nurse gave her a pill to calm her down.

Suffice it to say Pace is feeling a little fragile at the moment.

I kissed the 8 points of her face, rubbed her peach fuzz, buzz cut and held her hand. It was a brief yet emotionally deep moment for the both of us.

She told me that they have switched pain killers again, this time to something ingestible. The fragile state of her veins as a result of the chemotherapy is reducing the therapeutic options for her recovery. Most importantly she is sleeping, that’s the best medicine for healing.

Pace asked me to thank all of you for the positive energy and prayers that everyone sent her way. One measure of life’s wealth is friendship and the empathy of others; in that respect, by the grace of all of you, we feel like multi-millionaires.