Good morning sunshine!
I’m up and blogging because trying to get this done at night never works as of late! I am now 43 days past my nipple reconstruction and 142 days since my Stage 1 bilateral prophylactic mastectomy and DIEP flap breast reconstruction! It’s hard to believe that 5 months ago I was a nervous and emotional wreck worried about the outcome of all of this. And here I sit, just peachy keen (well, a little sleepy with messy hair, but otherwise peachy).
So I have had to doctor’s appointments since my last blog post. The first was with my breast oncologist, Dr. Larissa Korde of Seattle Cancer Care Alliance. I met with her for ONE LAST TIME! just as a follow up and baseline assessment post bilateral prophylactic mastectomy and DIEP flap breast reconstruction. Just as I was with my last visit with Dr. Sarah Javid, I felt very fortunate to have Dr. Korde taking care of me and screening me while I waited for a decision about what to do with my BRCA1 mutation and those damned boobs. I saw Dr. Korde every six months for screening, either in the form of a mammogram or a breast MRI. Now that I no longer have my natural breasts, I do not need a breast oncologist or breast cancer screenings! What a relief! As I’ve written before, there was such a lingering feeling of doom every time I went in for my screenings. I just knew that that appointment would be the one at which I found out that I had dilly-dallied too long and this genetic mutation had manifested in breast cancer. I would go through so many emotions waiting for my screening appointment and be upset with myself for not having our lives together and situated well enough to have the bilateral prophylactic mastectomy and DIEP flap reconstruction. I knew that this process was going to ask so much of my husband, our family, loving friends, and our two little girls. With the benefit of hindsight, I know that I didn’t misjudge the level of upheaveal my surgery would cause in our lives. We needed a lot of help with the girls, and I can’t thank our family and friends enough for helping us. Everyone was so supportive and wonderful; I was (and still am) stunned at how genuinely concerned, caring, and helpful everyone has been. And, here I am, on the outcome end of all of this and feeling great about my choices and my surgeries.
Dr. Korde discharged me from her care and referred me to the wellness clinic at Seattle Cancer Care Alliance, where I will continue to go for my CA125 marker blood draws and pelvic ultrasounds to monitor the health of my ovaries since they, too, are at risk for developing cancer. At our last appointment together, Dr. Korde performed a brief “breast” exam. In true compliment to Dr. Otway Louie and his team, she asked me if I had the skin sparing AND nipple sparing mastectomy. So, kudos to Dr. Louie for giving me such realistic, reconstructed nipples that they fooled a fellow physician! Dr. Korde asked me if I had any concerns at that time, and my only concern was this arc shaped band of thick scar tissue that’s formed underneath my left noob. It didn’t form (or at least noticeably form) until after my stage 2 revision surgery. It’s about the thickness of a finger and runs from the side of my noob adjacent to my armpit all the way under the flap. I noticed it when toweling off one day and that my pectoral muscle was uncomfortable in that same area whenever I raised my arm overhead. Dr. Korde felt it and said that it did feel “different” to her. She said that I’d probably be able to break it up with deep tissue massage or another modality, but to first ask Dr. Louie about it. She said that I could have additional imaging done at Seattle Cancer Care Alliance if Dr. Louie was concerned about the scar tissue. So, that got me all riled up because I was worried that I would have to undergo yet another procedure to address this weird band of scar tissue.
I then saw Dr. Louie on Monday, July 30, for our follow up. I told him about my scar tissue, he performed a quick physical exam, and told me that I could simply start massaging it to break it up. Relief! Simplicity is so amazing at times like these. At the time of my follow up with Dr. Louie, all but about 6 of my stitches had fallen out. His resident removed the last danglers and, alas, stitch and bitch free!!! If I do say so myself, these reconstructed nipples are pretty convincing. During my healing, I was really worried that I wouldn’t guard them enough and would end up with flattened out newpples. I spent a number of weeks looking like I was wearing Madonna’s long lost cone bra from the early 90’s because I was so padded up with protection around my newpples. But it was totally worth the numerous confused and questioning looks receieved whenever I went out in a fitting t-shirt. I have a little bit of projection and don’t look like I’m REALLY EXCITED to see everyone. The circular shaped scar I have from my nipple reconstruction is different enough from the surrounding skin on my noob to look like arealos that are simply the same color as my noob. My areolar tattoo appointment is on October 1, so I have a couple of months with no noob/newpple action to enjoy with our family.
I wanted to add in this post another testament to the great work of my reconstructive surgeon. As with every blog post, I included photos of my recovery process on my last blog update. I have done this throughout my process. I have always included photos of my noobs, but it wasn’t until my last post with photos of my healing newpples, that I was flagged on Facebook. My blog feeds to my Twitter, which feeds to my Facebook. I found it interesting that up until that point, my noobs were of no concern to whomever flagged my last post on Facebook (which was later removed from my feed). But, my convincing, reconstructed newpples are the official point of controversy. I was very much testing the waters to see when, if ever, someone would think that the noobs were looking too much like the real thing. So, in the words of Billy Blanks, Tae Bo – now you know!
Again, I can’t say that you enough to all of my physicians. Dr. Javid did an amazing job on my mastectomy; my recovery and healing went really well due, in large part, to effective yet gentle touch. Dr. Louie’s DIEP flap reconstruction is nothing short of phenomenal; the proof is in the pictures (no pudding, please!). And, I have to say, I miss seeing Dr. Daniel Liu, who was Dr. Louie’s plastic surgery resident. Everytime I had an appointment with Drs. Louie and Liu, it was so great to see him. He is a great guy and surgeon. He took mercy on my near pulsating anxiety and started to follow my blog when we were gearing up for surgery or shortly thereafter. All of my rambling questions, my middle of the night concerns (both founded and, sometimes, just wild), and nervous energy just sent out to the ether…Dr. Liu was kind enough to send a note here and there to address them. I have heard that many people are paying a pretty penny to have a Concierge Physician service. I am not one of those people, but Dr. Liu was there for me free of charge. It was, and is, such an amazing thing to have a physician so involved. I feel, a lot of times, that when I’m out of a doctor’s office, that’s it for my concerns until the next appointment. I don’t know if I was a particularly anxious patient or Dr. Liu is just a super nice guy, but either way I’m entirely grateful for his extensive care and attentiveness during my surgeries and recovery. I believe he and his family are now in Chicago enjoying more of a summer than we’re having this year. I hope his patients realize what a gem they’ve received from our Emerald City, and I hope he’s absolutely loving his new job. But, I just wanted to send a huge thank you out there, in case he still reads this, for all of his help.
So, now for the photographic evidence of all of these doctors’ great work! My abdomen incision is also looking really great. Because I have several scars that have kiloided over my lifetime, I asked Dr. Louie what to do about my scarring. He gave me a reference sheet for a product I can look into that may help me prevent this on my abdominal scar. Once I’ve bought and tried this, I’ll post progress pictures if there’s a noticeable difference. Right now I’m just trying to keep a good SPF on my scar and am wearing a new, one piece swimsuit that is UPF 50 to try and prevent my scar from getting any darker.
Next procedure up: Areolar tattooing – October 1, 2012.
07/31/12 – Incision
07/31/12 – Incision, L side
07/31/12 – Incision, R side
07/31/12 – Noobs!
07/31/12 – L Noob + Newpple, upclose & personal!
07/31/12 – R Noob + Newpple, upclose. Controversial!
shutupaboutit 