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, March 18, 2010

Breast Replacement Surgery

A new way of looking at mastectomy and reconstruction is "breast replacement". (Thanks, Debbie for the links.) I like it. When I think of mastectomy I think of my mother. That was way back when you went in for a biopsy and if it was cancer, came out without a breast. Today's mastectomies are typically skin-sparing or nipple sparing. For me, I get to choose. Reconstruction, either with an implant or with your own tissue is pretty common. I am choosing to use my own tissue (flap).

If all goes well, I will wake up after 12+ hours of surgery, with breasts. Yea, it's actually my own fat, but it works for me. My friends are coming by on this Sunday to help me "feed the flap" for my once-in-a-lifetime "Feed the Flap" potluck party.

So, back to breast replacement surgery. That's really the picture I want to paint for myself. I think all my life I will think of mastectomy as the scarred chest of the brave women who went before us. I can only wonder what will be available to our children if they are faced with the risk of breast cancer, hopefully a cure is just over the horizon.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

From what I've been hearing, the cure is in it's trial phase right now - PARP inhibitors - they are shrinking tumors, and don't have the awful side effects of chemo or radiation.

Also, I just want to let you know that I'm 6 weeks post op from mine (you already know that part though! :)) and the scars on my breasts are such a very thin line, once they heal and fade they won't even be that noticeable. You can do this!

Teri

March 18, 2010 at 5:14 PM
Joanie said...

Wouldn't that be wonderful!! Congratulations on passing your 6-week mark. I am so looking forward to celebrating my 6-week mark.

Teri, thanks so much for your encouragement. You have been such a tremendous resource and support for me.

March 19, 2010 at 6:29 AM

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