I haven't really updated this as there hasn't really been anything going on. Of course that was until this week started. So here's the skinny on what has been going on.
I quit smoking. I am 9 1/2 days smoke free so far. It's not been nearly as bad as I thought that it would be. Or maybe it was just that I was finally ready for that change to happen. After being smoke free for 48 hours, I started walking. My first walk was 4 miles. Yeah, a little ambitious, but it was nice to be able to walk that much and not huff and puff. Each day I was continuing to walk 2 miles, but then on Sunday the shin splints and pain in my ankles got to be too much for me, so I was only able to walk a mile and then I've been resting for a couple of days.
Yesterday I had my pre-op appointment with my primary physician. Not much to report there other than I had an EKG done and was given the paperwork for my bloodwork. So off I went to the vampires to let them draw my blood. I have a pretty nasty bruise, which is probably a first in a lot of years.
Today I had my pre-op appointments with Miss Vickie and with Dr. Mess.
Miss Vickie went over all of the instructions with me on what to do before the surgery and what to expect after and how everything will go while I am in surgery. I was told that I am to be there at 7:00 am and that I had to start out with about 5 needles that shoot me full of radioactive dye to check the lymph nodes in the armpit area. Apparently, Dr. Jacobs will be removing 3 of them and then it has to be sent off to pathology. Would it surprise you if I said that I am terrified of that? The last time something came back from pathology it said it was cancer. I sure don't want to hear that things have gotten worse or spread or whatever, but it is something that is necessary. What I worry about is that there is going to be something on that pathology report that will warrant chemo, which will make me lose my hair. Yes, I am that vain I guess. Let's just cross our fingers that bad doesn't come from those results.
Now after Dr. Jacobs gets one breast done, Dr. Mess will come in and work on that breast while Dr. Jacobs works on the other. The tend to do it this way since they don't want to keep me asleep for too long. Dr. Mess will be the one that finishes everything up and then goes out to talk to Andy and let him know how I am doing.
From the information I gathered from Dr. Mess today, I will pretty much be flat chested when I come out and my boob area will be highly deformed. This is what happens when you have a mastectomy and reconstruction. I guess I thought that I would have the tissue expanders inflated enough during surgery that I wouldn't be flat chested. Apparently that is not the case here. I am seriously not looking forward to that part.
After I have had my post-op appointment with Dr. Mess, I will have one with Dr. Jacobs, then another with Dr. Mess. When those appointments are all said and done, I will be looking at having the saline injected into the tissue expanders each week until I am at my desired size. Once I am to that size, I will go back in for a surgery to have my actual implants put in. Then the journey will continue after that.
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