Tag: nipple reconstruction

Post BPM day 141

decisionsformyfamily2 Comments

Interesting when I see it broken down into days, 141 days since I made the radical life changing decision to take charge of my life and have the bilateral prophylactic mastectomy.  Three surgeries, lots of pain and some whining later I am almost through the tunnel.

Yesterdays surgery went well.  Although I had to arrive at the hospital at 5:30, I was bumped due to an emergency before me.  I was not taken back until about 9am.  Although I was a bit frustrated due to having to arrange for care for the girls etc, I took it in stride remembering my time in the ICU and the possibility that I could have been that emergency.  I breezed through recovery with no issues at all, thankfully!  The last time was a real issue!  Because things went so well there we were home and laying in my own bed by 1:30.  Not too bad!

I am pleased with what we did yesterday.  The Newpple issue seems to be corrected and the girls seem to be much more even.  I do not think they are perfect but then again I do not think any woman’s are so I am pleased with them. He did revise some of the scares that were really off which was a negotiated middle ground between what I proposed and where he was so again I am pleased.  He also did a minor cut along the abdominal scare where I have had an irritating lump.  He thought it may have been a suture that did not desolve but instead turned out to be an area of scare tissue that had formed.  Although the incision point is sore, I already feel better having the lump out!

So with all of that said, barring some strange outcome from the healing I have to go through over the next days, I have achieved a level of peace with the “girls” and see no reason why I would need to have any further surgeries on them! I follow up with the Surgeon on Wednesday.

Cleaning and more surgery-round 3

decisionsformyfamily7 Comments

Tomorrow is the day.  Hopefully the last of the surgeries.  So what have I been doing this weekend?  What else…cleaning, preparing and making sure everything is taken care of for the next few days without much assistance from me.  I have washed, folded and put away 4-5 loads of laundry, changed sheets, cleaned bathrooms and the kitchen and vacuumed every carpet.

The first surgery, the bilateral prophylactic mastectomy was July 2.  I did it then because the girls were out of school.  I never expected to be preparing to go once again under a knife right before Thanksgiving.  I have to be at the hospital tomorrow by 5:30 am. Thankfully we have a wonderful neighbor who will come to my house at 5am so the girls do not have to wake up so early.  They will be able to get up at normal time, get dressed and will then head over to the neighbor’s house.

Madison will miss school tomorrow for a few reasons.  First our district only has half day Kindergarten.  She basically is only there for 3 hours.  My neighbors are being nice enough I do not feel right asking them to spend their entire day at bus stops with my kids.  Probably more important is my babies fragile state of mind.  I put her to bed in tears.  She has been through so much with me since such and early age that she worries about me.  One of the women she will be spending the day with tomorrow is like and adoptive grandmother to her.  I think she will be much calmer even feel safer staying home with her.

Megan on the other hand does not seem worried at all which is good.  She goes to school with my neighbor’s little boy so they will go to the bus stop together and she will go about a normal day and if all goes well we will be home before she is from school.  If not she will head back to his house until we arrive.

I am not sure what to expect tomorrow. Having already been through the nipple reconstruction and breast revision, this is a revision to that revision.  The newpples did not heal the same.  From the beginning the surgeon said they had to be large to start with in order to shrink down to size.  They did not shrink the same, not even close.  So that needs to be addressed.  Another issue is the “pitch” of the girls.  So one needs to be lifted to match the other. On top of those issues I am pushing to have some of the scares revised a bit but he seems reluctant to do anything there.  He says it takes up to a year for scares to heal.  We will negotiate that more in the morning.

Barring any major issues…I plan on this being the end of the breast chapter. I guess we just have to stay tuned to see how this chapter ends.

Revisions, colonoscopy, ultrasound and “Frankenstorm”

decisionsformyfamily3 Comments

With the end of the year quickly approaching I finally have everything scheduled and barring any unforeseen  circumstances, it will all be completed before the end of November!

I saw the Gastroenterologist today.  She agreed that a colonoscopy would be a wise move.  I have stopped fighting it and have scheduled for November 9.  I have my instructions and my script and am SOOO looking forward to it, NOT!

I have scheduled the revision surgery for November 19th.  I have to go for blood work sometime this week for that.  I am hoping the recovery from this one is quick since Thanksgiving will only be a few days later.

Since the rest of the schedule fell into line today, the only other thing I needed to get onto the schedule was the pelvic ultrasound.  As soon as I walked through the door I jumped on the phone and scheduled for November 7th.  Two and a half weeks in November are looking pretty ugly but if all goes well, by the end of the month it will all be over!

In other interesting news, we on the east coast are preparing for Hurricane Sandy or the more fun name being given to the storm, “Frankenstorm”.  They are saying it will be a 1 in 100 year storm.  I am not right along the coast so no evacuations for my family but my sister lives on the coast.  We may have a visitor over the weekend.  If things align the way they think,  we could be looking at over 10-12 inches of rain.  possibly one heck of a mess!  We ran to the store for extra milk, bottled water and batteries and a new lighter for candles.

Now I guess we just wait, for everything.