Wigs and Things

August 30, 2017, the day I lost my breasts, lost my cancer, and regained control of my life! It was bittersweet to say the least. Of course it was. But it needed to be done. Pete and I arrived at 5:30 a.m. on Wednesday, August 30th, and they checked me in and brought be back to pre-op. I changed into a gown, rifling through the goody bag they gave me. ''A sample of Young Living lavender oil, huh? That's a nice touch!'', I thought to myself. I watched the news, the nurse gave me an i.v., and Pete came back and joined me. ''Here is something to help you calm down'', they said. I was perfectly calm, but okay. The next thing I knew, I woke up in my room. Pete was watching the Big Bang Theory, and it was late afternoon. ''Is it over?'', I asked, confused. It was. My general surgeon only had to remove two lymph nodes, none of which had any cancer left. Victory! My plastic surgeon did a beautiful job with my free tram reconstruc...

Pre-op appointment for free tram flap Colonoscopy Time! Haven't I been tortured enough? You may be thinking that now that chemo is done, everything is all sunshine and rainbows and butterflies. How do I break this to you? No. In every possible sense of the word. If you are having post-chemo surgery like me, there is an insane amount of prep work to be done. Such as... 1. Pre-op visits. Since I am having a general surgeon perform the bilateral mastectomy and a plastic surgeon perform the free tram flap, this means two visits. 2. Port removal. My surgeons will not take my port out during surgery, and since I am having radiation I would have to wait at least six months for it to be removed after surgery, which brings us into the Spring. I will be damned if I am going to have this hard plastic thing serving pretty much zero purpose continuing to occupy my body until the Spring. I opted not to have anesthetic, and yes, it di...