May love and laughter light your days, and warm your heart and home.
May good and faithful friends be yours, wherever you may roam.
May peace and plenty bless your world with joy that long endures.
May all life's passing seasons bring the best to you and yours!
~ Robert Frost

Welcome!

Welcome to my blog. This is my story of how I faced my risk of breast cancer, the decisions I made, the support I received and my week by week recovery from surgery. I chose to have a prophylactic bilateral mastectomy with immediate DIEP reconstruction at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston (March 2010). For more information on my 'Medical Team' please see tab above. I also have a wonderful circle of friends who have supported me throughout. They have provided us with lots of delicious meals and desserts. Many of those recipes are included above under "Feed the Flap" recipes. "Feed the Flap" is a term I coined when trying to increase my abdominal (fat) flap to ensure that I was a good candidate for the DIEP procedure. This was not something recommended by any medical professional, it was just something that made sense to me. I think it worked!! Feel free to join me on this journey and feel free to post comments.

Select the tabs on the left side marked Week 1, Week 2, Week 3..... to go immediately to the surgical/recovery part of this blog.


Saturday, January 2, 2010

Happy New Year!

Two and a half months and counting. I used to be able to say that my upcoming surgery was 'next' year, but that time has come. Now I am still counting in months, next it will be weeks, then days, then hours, then minutes. I am scared. On New Year's Eve I created my will. What if something goes wrong? I know I can't or shouldn't think that way. But for those of you who know me know that I plan for the worst. Maybe that's bad karma, but I would rather be prepared.
When working on a will there are lots of choices to make. It's not all about money! There were alot of questions about health directives. So, on New Year's Eve I kept asking my DH if he would be willing to make all sorts of gut-wrenching decisions for me. He's a good sport and agreed.

One New Year's Day I started cleansing the house, starting in the attic. By March 15th I want to have my house all organized and orderly. I know in my heart, it's a 'just in case' scenario. I also know that women everyday have this surgery and not only survive it, but (later) say they wouldn't do it any other way.

I am still keeping my decision and my plans close to the chest, so to speak. So far, two of my sisters-in-law know. One sister-in-law is planning to come to my house and stay with the girls. There is no way to thank her for her kindness and generosity if I lived to be 100. I have also told a few of my closest friends. Not many since I don't want that to affect our relationship. I am telling only the people whom I believe will be genuinely helpful to me, DH or my daughters. I am not interested in telling people so that they will be 'in the know'.

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