Surgery-versary!

1 year

It’s been one year since my initial surgery date.  On March 15, 2012 I had a prophylactic bilateral skin-sparing mastectomy immediately followed by DIEP Flap breast reconstruction.  We’ve come a long way baby.

Occasionally I will go back to the first postings of my blog.  It brings me right back to how afraid I was of the unknown.  I didn’t know how I would handle such a major surgery, never having been through surgery, or how my children would react to seeing me in pain through my recovery.  I was worried that my tissue transfer would fail and that my reconstructed breasts (or later, my reconstructed nipples) would become necrotic.  I was worried that my range of motion would forever be impacted, and I didn’t know what my body would be like after surgery.  I was worried about the aesthetics.  Would reconstructed breasts look freakish?  Would I still feel feminine, would they feel at all like breasts?  And, my biggest fear, was that this would all be for naught and that my breast tissue would come back as cancerous from the lab after my mastectomy.

What I wish now, as I’m sure many people do, is that I could go back to myself a year ago and simply say, “Calm down; shut up; sleep.”  But I know it’s so much easier to say that now.  I’m a year out, healthy, cancer free, and with a great surgical result.  I had 1 small hematoma post-op, barely a blip on the complication register.  I received clean pathology results within 48 hours of my mastectomy.  My children were well looked after, taken care of (and wildly entertained) while I recovered.  My body recovered well, and I am back doing the same things (and some things even beyond) I was doing before my surgeries.

I am breast cancer free, and I am thankful.

Thank you to my family and friends for your love, support, time, home cooked meals, get well cards, visits, and a little bit more love.

Thank you to my sister, Alyssa, for showing me what strong really looks like, and how easy it is to be a beautiful, feminine woman after cancer and a mastectomy.

Thank you to Dr. Sarah Javid and Dr. Otway Louie, my wonderful surgeons, who did such skilled, careful work on this body of mine.

Thank you to Dr. Daniel Z. Liu for reading my crazy ass, terrified blog posts about my post-op worries and answering me so quickly, during crazy people hours, on Twitter – of all places!

Thank you to every nurse that looked after me in recovery and took such good care of me.

Thank you to Eunice for answering my 8 million “Is this necrotic tissue?!?” texts!

Thank you to every physician and medical researcher that endures so many hours of un-fun, book heavy, sleepless nights learning about medicine, prevention, and treatment for all of us – and giving me the chance to take preventive action.

Thank you for another day.

 

UPDATE PHOTOS BELOW

 

Update photo taken 03/02/2013

R side after 2nd areolar tattoo

L Side after second areolar tattoo