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.


Friday, March 12, 2010

"Shut it down. Shut it out."

This is exactly what I needed to hear. I run my own consulting firm and have a tendency to obsess on my work. I don't have regular hours and can be found on my computer at all hours of the day. And I will bend over backwards for my clients. But I am feeling some stress right now with my surgery date quickly creeping up on me. There are so many things I need and want to do before I head into surgery.

Since this all began I have connected with several wonderful women who have been tremendously supportive throughout my rollercoaster of decision-making and with the details of the surgery, hospital stay and recovery. But last night I spoke with a woman who told me to "shut it down, shut it out." And that was just exactly what I needed to hear at that point in time. I was contemplating squeezing one or two more clients in before my surgery, but have re-thought that and will refer the clients to a fellow consultant who has agreed to cover for me while I am out. I feel guilt about that, but her advice really hit home and will free me up to enjoy my family and pull some loose ends together.

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