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, March 27, 2010

'Twas the night before surgery.....


Well actually it is the night before the night before surgery. But it is my last night at home. A friend called who has walked this path before me and was exactly what I needed. She made me laugh. I have known her since I was 5 years old. She is wonderfully funny and is always able to put things in perspective. When she had breast cancer she didn't miss a beat. She was in treatment and back to work without anyone even knowing. What an amazing woman. I still have in the back of my mind that whole thing about feeling like I have been hit by a train. Well, my friend would just expect to stare that train down and have it stop in its tracks.

Another friend told me that I would be coming home to the same life, the same family, the same friends that I am leaving. That was also just what I needed to hear. There was a very strong part of me that felt like I was marching off to my death. Okay, so maybe I have obsessed a bit too much on all the risks of surgery. I would list them, but that would just be way too entertaining. Well, I do worry about losing a tooth..... but as long as they pull that tube straight out I should be okay.

Tubes....tubes down my throat, tubes to pee through, tubes to drain my wounds. Lots of tubes. Luckily I will be asleep when they insert these things. Oh, at least I think I will be asleep. The pulling out of the tubes, not so much. I will get to be a party to that and will let you know exactly what that is like.

I am ready!!

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