Last week I spent the week relaxing at home, recovering from my reconstructive surgery. When I got home I noticed some tiny, weird cuts on my right arm, and on my abdomen. At the post-op visit with the nurse the next day, she didn’t know what caused them – she guessed that they draped me… Continue reading No more drains!
Since I have not talked about my surgeries in a while on this blog, I thought I’d give things a recap and an update with how things have turned out. Monday’s surgery was my first of two reconstructive surgeries, this one being the most major (although less major than the mastectomy itself, which was not… Continue reading Surgery Details
Yesterday’s surgery went fine. The surgery was scheduled for 3pm, which meant that I could not eat or drink anything (including water) from midnight onward. Actually I could have something at 6am, but if the surgery got pulled to earlier in the day, which apparently happens sometimes, I wouldn’t be able to take advantage of… Continue reading Good Morning
After my April follow-up visit with Dr. FixIt, my reconstructive surgery was scheduled for September 11. Turns out that date was just as inauspicious as it seems, and my surgery has been pulled in to TOMORROW! And I’m finally getting around to blogging about it. Here is what happened. About two weeks after that April… Continue reading Schedule Change – Tomorrow’s the Day!
Yesterday I had my first visit with Dr. FixIt since midway through chemo, when he did my final breast expander fill. If you’ll recall, Dr. FixIt is my plastic surgeon – i.e., the guy ultimately responsible for cleaning up everyone else’s mess, and helping me to realize my goal of getting a perky rack out… Continue reading Getting Closer to Perkiness
The last time I visited Dr. FixIt, my plastic surgeon, was sometime during chemo for my final breast expander fill. We agreed at that visit that I should call him about six weeks after my final radiation therapy appointment to schedule my next appointment with him, at which point we would start discussing reconstruction. He… Continue reading Surgery Scheduling
A week or so ago I met with the UCSD plastic surgeon I’d heard of who is able to perform lymphedema microsurgery – the only such surgeon I’ve been able to find in San Diego. He was very young and distractingly cute. I liked him, but still have a lot to consider. He trained at… Continue reading Meeting a New Doctor
One of the articles I encountered in my lymphedema surgery Googling was about a woman who traveled from San Diego to Orlando to have microsurgery done for her lymphedema. The article specifically mentioned that she initially learned of the technique through Facebook, so I thought me stalking messaging her on FB would be copacetic. (I also discovered… Continue reading Making Friends
The “maintenance” therapy for my lymphedema includes wearing a compression sleeve + gauntlet. However, since the majority of my lymphedema is in the hand, my therapist added a little pad under the gauntlet, in the back. All this seems to work fairly well at keeping the swelling at bay. Last weekend we went skiing, and… Continue reading Switching Gears and Researching Options
Today was my third and final medical appointment of the week: surgery to remove my port, since I don’t need it anymore! I scheduled the surgery for 9am, because you can’t eat or drink (not even water) after midnight, so the sooner the better. What I did not realize was that that meant we had… Continue reading No More Port!
