Tuesday, March 14, 2017

WHAT IS IT WITH THE EVE'S?  ~ or ~ MASTECTOMY EVE

The last time I blogged it was Chemo Eve.  And now it's Mastectomy Eve.  I swear I don't plan it this way on purpose.  I guess what's going on here is that I wait until something super important is happening before blogging.  Or I think what's really going on here is that I've been busy and haven't made blogging a priority but I want to blog before I have surgery tomorrow.  Yeah, I think that's more like it.

I have been feeling really great these last couple of weeks!  It has been SO GOOD to feel good.  I have been out walking a lot and getting my strength back up, eating super healthy foods that I LOVE and enjoying the rejuvenation of my taste buds (thank goodness!) and my appetite.  And of course, enjoying quality time with Tanner and Steve and my family and friends.  This past week wasn't as fun of a week as it was busy with doctors appointments and preparing for surgery and the recovery period.  But overall, I have really been enjoying NO CHEMO.

Here are some photos of what I've been up to:


 The morning of my last chemo on February 9th.  Tanner loves my pink wig!



Some of my best girls came to visit me at last-chemo-day.  So much love!


Ringing the bell at the infusion center to celebrate Chemo graduation


Me and my honey .. such a relief for us to be done with this part of the journey


Tanner and I enjoyed a walk to the river on one of our many amazingly gorgeous February days



Our first trip to Great Wolf Lodge as an early birthday present for Tanner.  Cute wolf ears Tan Man!


Slides and wave pool, slides and wave, slides and wave pool all.day.long for 2 days!  FUN!


Don't worry Great Wolf Lodge, I'm sure we will be back



We loved our trip to Williamsburg visiting Mishie and Bryan.  
Here we are on our favorite walk to the beautiful James River.


My long-time friend Sherry (3rd from left), surprised me last week with all of these great friends for lunch!  I thought I was just meeting her but she arranged for these ladies to come too.  I was SO surprised and happy.  Love you Sherry (and you too Dawn, Heidi, Kim & Sharyn)


Tanner turned 6!  Birthday breakfast:  eggs, potato cake, bacon, toast 
AND whipped cream on the side "because it's my birthday!"



My big boy!


Here we are at home for the family birthday party.  The next day we took Tanner and some friends to see The Lego Batman movie and then had them over for play time and cake.  
Yes, Tanner had many cakes for his 6th birthday!


Look at those cheeks!  I've loved them for over 6 years now.  They are delicious.

Sorry folks, there is no photo to go along with this caption:
I've also spent copious amounts of time staring at my skull in my light up magnifier mirror looking for hair growth. There's some ... tiny, tiny but something is happening!  


So I'm getting really tired right now and still have quite a few things I want to do before bed so I just want to say a little bit about the mastectomy.

Some have been surprised to hear I'm having this surgery after I was declared "no evidence of disease" from the ultrasound I had the day after my last chemo.  No doubt, this was awesome news!  But it didn't mean that I was going to be free from having surgery and radiation.  

I was given the option to have a lumpectomy but after a lot of consideration, I decided that having a mastectomy is the best choice for me personally.  Major factors are that there was something that was missed by the surgeon at the beginning of this journey that should of been clipped.  A spot that was seen on MRI that didn't get a chance to be biopsied and clipped.  It disappeared after my first chemo but it technically should of been monitored.  It bothers me to this day that it wasn't clipped like the original tumor in the breast and the affected lymph node.  If I had a lumpectomy, I would have to have MRI's every 6 months for who knows how long.  I don't want to deal with the anxiety of MRI's every 6 months ... no thanks.  Also, my genetics testing came back wonky (more explantation on this later.  It deserves it's own blog post).

Tomorrow I will have a bi-lateral mastectomy with expanders put in.  My breast surgeon will perform the mastectomy and the sentinel node biopsy and then my reconstruction surgeon will put in the expanders that are needed for breast reconstruction.  It will be approximately a 4 - 4 1/2 hour surgery and I will stay one night in the hospital.  I have a whole list of restrictions for the next 2 weeks and should be feeling pretty good and healing well after 4 weeks.  I will begin radiation 4-6 weeks after surgery .... Maybe my next post will be RADIATION EVE.  lol.  no, seriously .. I will post before then. I think.

How am I feeling right now?  A little anxious to be honest.  Not scared.  Just a little anxious about not being able to eat or drink tomorrow (my surgery isn't until 12:30), being under anesthesia for so long, missing Tanner tomorrow night and the overall time of recovery from this.  It's hard because I've been on such an upswing the past 3 weeks making it hard to wrap my head around being "a patient" again.  BUT .. it won't be as bad as going through chemo, that's for sure and I know I'll come out on the other side boob-less but all the more bad-ass for going through it - hell yes!  And September --- I'm lookin' at you baby - new boobs month!!

Until next time .. wish me luck, love, prayers, thoughts -- all the good stuff for tomorrow.

Love, from me to you.