Cancer Files: Make Mine a Double

Today was plastic surgeon day.  Before I begin, let me say that through this whole situation I am SO incredibly thankful to God for giving me just enough jitters to keep this real and enough calm to be at peace most of the time.  Every time I get into the car to go to a new meeting with whatever doctor I am seeing, I start getting that queezy feeling in my stomach.  The intensity continues to increase as we get out of the car and make our way to the office.  Once in the office I am usually having to intently listen to whatever the doctor is explaining because really, to be honest, most visits are information overload.  I don't seem to get these queezies until appointment time.  The peace of God truly does pass all understanding.

With that said, those queezies calmed right away in the plastic surgeons office.  First things first, he pulls out his little kit of breast implant samples for us to look at, feel and compare.  Nope, no more queezies - it was a little hard not to giggle as he held up the "gummy bear implant" that has just recently come out this past February!  He explained everything with pictures of past patients and testimonials of their success and happiness upon completion.

Then we talked about my specific situation and the questions I had along with the things that I should keep in mind as we make this decision.  Do we want an implant, two implants?  Or, do we want to use my own body's tissue?  Research it if you would like, I won't go into all of the details here, but there are amazing things they can do with the human body to help women get through this very stressful transition.

So, what did we decide?  Well, pros and cons considered, we are going with a double mastectomy with tram flap reconstruction.  It is a more involved surgery and longer recovery time but in the long run, it gives me the best chance to get all of the bad stuff out of there and not have to go through this again down the road on the other side.  There will be minimal returns to the doctors office in years ahead and my body won't have to get used to "foreign" objects as body parts.

I won't lie, I am ready to get this done and move on.  I asked the question of the nurse today if there would be ANY chance that I would still have to do radiation or chemo when all this is over.  She said more than likely not but we will know after the pathology comes back.  I am at peace with this decision and look forward to being on the other side of the surgery day which I will find out when the nurse gives me a call back in the next couple of days.  I told her it needs to happen sometime between August 3rd (when my cousin Buck and his beautiful bride Jen get married) and August 27th, the first day of school.  My goal is to be far enough along in my recovery to be able to stand up straight and see the kids off on their first day.  Let's see if the docs get their schedules together to accommodate me!