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I'm going to give you the quick timeline version of my crazy week.

• Monday, May 17th. I went in for my "muscle-sparing free tram flap" surgery. It was a complete success. Here's a good article on breast reconstruction.
• Thursday, the 20th (three days early), I was discharged from hospital. The surgeon called me his star patient. I felt great. No pain at all.
• Took it easy at home for the rest of Thursday.
• Friday, Mom drove me to the store to pick up some loose-fitting sweat pants and tops. Was a bit tired, so it was a very short trip.
• Friday evening, Norm and I went to get some groceries. I didn't carry anything or overwork myself at all.
• Came home, got my jammies on, and noticed that the new tissue had changed to a dark pink colour.
• Norm took me to emergency Friday night. My surgeon was out of town, so the plastic surgeon-on-call (the same one who assisted with my surgery on Monday) came in to see me. He didn't like to looks of the tissue, so he decided to operate. At this point, the flap was still viable; the colour was not too bad, and the blood flow could still be heard with the Doppler. His thought was that too much fluid had accumulated in the breast and was causing the blood flow to become constricted. This surgery happened around 1:00 am Saturday.
• I was admitted to hospital on strict bed rest instructions. Dr. Robinson decided on a second surgery for Saturday afternoon, after having reached my own PS, Dr. Barnsley, by phone. They thought that perhaps a blood vein was twisted. Although in Lucas' blog, he says I had chest pain, there was in fact no pain at all. 
• By Sunday, it was clear that the tissue transfer was failing. Although the blood flow could still be heard, it was becoming more faint. Dr. Barnsley arrived in town and swung by the hospital to have a look at me. He would operate Tuesday to remove the tissue. It had turned a dark purple colour by now.
• I had my 4th surgery in eight days on Tuesday at 9:00 pm. 
• Was discharged Wednesday, May 26th with the plan of returning on Monday, May 31st to try a new method of reconstruction. This time, my latissimus dorsi muscle and skin from my back would be brought around front to cover a saline tissue expander in the breast area.  

I'll give a more detailed version over the next few days. I am doing fine. I have had no pain through the whole episode, so for that, I am very fortunate. I'm pretty tired today, I guess from all the anesthetic, but I'm in good spirits. I'm back to where I started last week - lop-sided! Actually I'm one step ahead, because I now have a nice flat tummy!

Thanks for all your good wishes and kind thoughts. A special thanks to the local folks who visited me in hospital, and snuck in food, good coffee, and books. A big thank you to my fellow book lover, Janik, and her pretty pink Kindle.