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.


Thursday, February 11, 2010

Ready, Set, Go....

You will recall that my big date was set for March 15th. Well, now it is March 29th. The breast surgeon has something she has to do that day, so I got rescheduled. Very distressing at first, but actually worked out very well for us. First, I get to keep my breasts for two more weeks. Second, I have more time to get organized. Third, I know this date won't get changed.

You may have been able to read between the lines that I haven't been totally onboard with this whole decision. However when the date is taken away and you get an opportunity to rethink the surgery altogether, you really come to terms with what you want and what your don't want. I never once said to myself that I didn't want the surgery, I was upset and looking at other alternatives to having this done in Boston. So, after sleeping on it, I realized that the quickest way to get this behind me is to stick with Boston. I have picked the best doctors I can find in  Boston for this procedure.

So, my mind is made up. I am ready. I am now on the other side of this decision. Now I am ordering things called "marsupials" - a belt with pouches for the drains. I am ordering a hospital bed for the time when I can't sleep flat. I am getting clothes together that open in the front. I have wisps for when I can't brush my teeth. My friends are thinking about how to help. I don't have any doubts. Ready, set, go.....

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

One of the hardest parts of this whole thing is making that decision...congrats to you for doing so! I'm going to add you to my blog roll. :)

Teri

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