Weekly appointment #3 post surgery

I wanted to get the drains out badly on Monday so I stayed in my recliner all day Sunday. I knew that if I didn't move much my draining would go down. And it did but not enough. The drains didn't come out. I was told that if it continues to drop this week, I can call and have them taken out on Friday!! I am not using my arms as much as possible to make sure they continue to stop draining. We also found out that some of my pains/irritations that are coming around are just from the nerves around my incision site starting to fire again. It feels good though, I'm coming back around to "normal". We also learned that my tumor was a stage 1/grade 3 tumor which means it was small but aggressive which we knew as it was HER2NEU +. My doctor was happy with my progress though.

My least favorite part of this process now is the little white vest shirt they gave me at the hospital. It is convenient as it has pockets for my drains, it's nice and soft, and it doesn't need to go over my head. It is too big for me though so it is rubbing on my armpits. The millions of snaps are annoying and now that I can feel areas around my incision site, they are irritating the area in between the two incision sites. Plus, I have worn the two that I was given for 18 days now (washing and rotating - I'm not that disgusting) so I am ready to branch out into the fashion world again soon. Only people who have worn this vest will understand my irritations so I appreciate the rest of you who are wondering what the hell I am talking about.

I am sharing this now because I have talked to my school about my options and am looking at possibilities. I will be taking off the rest of the school year due to my surgery and my start of chemotherapy. I am also trying to find a way to take off next school year since my treatments will be weekly and I would have to be absent from school at least once per week for almost the entire school year plus take off a day or two to have my port removed. I also understand the risks of working with children with a compromised immune system. I am petrified of getting sick from the students and derailing my treatment or worse having to be hospitalized from an infection. My oncologist is not happy with the idea of me being around "germy children" either. I have been exploring options (grants, financial assistance, and even work-from home options) and am finding this to be the most emotionally draining part of my recovery. I can't help but think that there have to be ways to do this but I am missing something. I feel exhausted each day by the effort I put into finding a way to make sure we are able to survive this experience financially and getting nowhere. I am hopeful that I will have some luck this week.