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.


Wednesday, March 17, 2010

So little time.....

It's hard to imagine how upset I was when my surgery got rescheduled from March 15th to the 29th. Right now I am soooooo appreciative that I am feeling great and being productive. I never could have done all the things that need to get done. Here's just a sampling:

1. Girls need Easter dresses and shoes

2. Easter Baskets need to be put together

3. Make little gifts bags for JieJie and MeiMei each day that we are away (thanks Brenda!)

4. Make reminder lists for Auntie D of homework, school projects, swim lessons, tennis lessons, choir practice, Brownies, etc.

5. Contact PS's office to make sure I can take a sleep aid the night before surgery.

6. Clean my house and make something for my once in a lifetime "Feed the Flap" party

7. Tie up loose ends for my business - not sure I will ever be able to do this

8. Organize the things I will need when I get home to make me very very comfortable (pillows!)

9. Teach DH how to blog!

10. Kiss, hug and hold my family really really tight!!!

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I love how you refer to it as 'feed the flap' :)

I just used to say "I need the fat for my boobs!" heehee

Teri

March 17, 2010 at 9:30 PM
Joanie said...

Thanks Teri,

Initially I was so afraid that I would not be a candidate for the DIEP and wouldn't have any choice in what type of reconstruction. So, I then went on a mission to "feed the flap", which has worked. Although it will be nice to get the extra tire off.

I also wanted to tell you that you have been so helpful to me. Following your recovery week by week is giving me hope that everything will improve and the pain with decrease with time. Trying to squeeze so much in right now is really reducing my computer time, but I wanted to make sure to thank you!!!

March 18, 2010 at 6:23 AM
Anonymous said...

Yeah, totally, that's where I was at too - needed a little extra, but didn't feel all that comfortable with it..

I'm really just so glad to hear that. Honestly, that's why I'm sharing it. The biggest fear is the unknown and if I can shed a little light on it, and help alleviate some concerns I'm so happy to do it.

You are very welcome. I'm sure glad we crossed paths. :)

Teri

March 18, 2010 at 2:58 PM

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