It’s been two weeks since the mastectomy of my left breast. I still have the drains in and I’m sore and swollen with an occasional sharp pain. However, the incisions look clean and healthy…..as if being sewn back together like a patchwork quilt could ever look good.
The surgery was called a skin-saving mastectomy. The first surgeon takes out all the insides of the breast and 3 lymph nodes. The lymph nodes get tested immediately and, if cancer is found in all 3 the rest are removed.
Then, the plastic surgeon comes in and does his thing. He lifts the muscle and puts in a spreader to maintain the shape of the breast. It’s filled with a saline solution and will be filled weekly or bi-weekly with 100 cc’s of fluid until it matches my other breast.
Then the fun begins. I go under the knife again and they remove the spreader and insert the belly fat into the empty space.
At the moment, I can’t push, pull, or life anything over 10 pounds. I can’t drive thanks to the medication and there are exercises to keep me from stiffening up.
I learned yesterday, that they found a cancer cell in the first of the 3 lymph nodes they yanked out. I guess that was to be expected. Translated, it means I will have to undergo chemotherapy for God knows how long and probably be on tamoxifin, or something similar, for at least a year, maybe longer. I’ll be talking to the oncologist next week.
But, right now, I need to concentrate on healing. It will be a few months, and 5 injections into the spreader, before they can do the surgery to rebuild lefty with the fat from my belly. In all, I get a boob job and a tummy tuck. Not bad for an old broad.
But that’s for another day.
I refuse to worry about what coming. The worst is past. The cancer has been removed and I am the luckiest person on the planet.
