Reconstruction/Remodel

Do normal bloggers write posts when they get boob jobs? Well, this one is! After the year I've had, let's just keep the full disclosure going, shall we. After my lumpectomy I was scheduled for reconstruction surgery - because, as my doctor described it, nobody want's to look like a sharkbite was taken out of their boob. Right you are, sir. 

October 22nd was my surgery date. I was sort of worried that the surgery team would look at my post lumpectomy boob and say "ah, you look fine - we're cancelling the surgery!", but my doctor reassured me that while my right boob might look ok now, in about 6 months swelling and liquid filling the void would dissipate and I would be left with a big indent, so surgery was still on and I would be happy about it later. Great. 

But that's not even the best news - the best news is that in reconstructing the left breast to match now with the right post lumpectomy breast - I was getting an overall breast reduction at the same time. SO EXCITED - yet scared at the same time. More surgery, more anesthesia, more anxiety....

Fast forward to today. Surgery went beautifully, I'm healing very well, everything looks great despite dressing for Halloween as "FRANKENBOOBIES", I'm all good and walking around with smaller and lighter boobs - so nice. I had my post-op follow up yesterday with Dr. Said. Now I'm on the hurry up and heal process, and doing everything I can to encourage it because I start the last step of my cancer journey (radiation) in a month or so. Because radiation is sort of an ass-kicker for my good cells, I really need to get as healthy as I can before we start. I'll do radiation every week day for 6 1/2 weeks - and then finally we will be done with almost everything. I don't know if I mentioned this in past posts, but people who get a lumpectomy and then don't follow it with radiation have a 30-40% chance of cancer reccurrance in the first three years. Even people with a "complete response" to treatment. People who do get the radiation after lumpectomy have about a 3% reccurrance rate - I like the sound of that much better. So I'll keep you posted on how that goes, should be fairly uneventful, the only bad part is that it keeps us home in Seattle over the Holidays, we won't even be able to be at the farm since I'll need to be close to SCCA the whole time. 

On another note - I'm having anxiety about my hair. I really really want my old hair back, not this super short mostly white salt and pepper version. Despite being super grateful that I'm healthy, I have this lingering hair thing that makes me feel bad. I guess I would feel ok to either have super short hair in my normal color, or my old length with s/p hair, but introducing both at the same time is a little harsh. I feel like it might make me look unusually OLD or bad. I decided that I need to see my hair gal and get her thoughts on what to do. I'm considering coloring it back toward what it was, then over time while it grows I can gradually introduce more and more of the "salty" color. The "not as shocking" approach seems a little easier. Kit has been so nice that I can't get a read on what he really really thinks, and we all know that friends always want to be nice and say "oh, I really like it" but what they really mean is " it's fine for you but I would NEVER do that to my hair!"  I need a neutral opinion - I'm going to see my hair gal on Friday at 4. And, she's going to cut my wig too - just to give me something new for the next month or so before I just give it up and go short. Does any of this make sense? I know, these are the weirdest things to be talking about - but right now it's my life - ugh!

I promise to talk about how excited I am for Thanksgiving and Christmas in my next post. Whopeee.

Oh, ps.... here is a shout out to my reconstruction doctor, Dr. Said at SCCA/UW Medical Center. He's awesome, and don't you think it's kind of amusing that in a year of cancer dealings, the only male doctor I've seen happens to be the one that is building my new boobs. Makes me chuckle. hee hee. But, super pleased with his approach and he's an excellent doctor and has made us feel really comfortable about everything from the first time we met him. He's given me some of the best information about what will happen before/during and after radiation and we feel very lucky to have had him on our team. (By we I mean Kit and me, not my boobs and me!!!)

Dr. Hakim Said