Over the hump? 21 days post-mastectomy

After breezing through the recovery from the mastectomy and initial reconstruction and implant expansion, I hit a wall this week.
To recap: On day 17, the doc drew a lot of fluid out from around the implant and injected more saline into the implant, hoping to fill the breast cavity and minimize the space for fluid [...]

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Breast Reconstruction: Save some pain meds for the implant expansion

Yes, this is the tough girl who took no pain meds after the shot of Demerol they gave me without asking in Recovery…who still has the full bottle of Darvocet in the cupboard…who only took an Aleve in the morning and one at bedtime for the first few days after surgery then quit because I [...]

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Update – Day 17

Just a (relatively, for me) quick update. I was so annoyed with all the weird feelings inside the bionic breast that I called to see if I could get in to see the plastic surgeon sooner than my Thurs appointment. They fit me in this afternoon (Monday). Turned out I had quite of bit of [...]

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Mastectomy Recovery – Day 16

NOTE: Today’s post includes descriptions of my recovery experiences for those who may be about to have mastectomy, as well as the latest news.  For friends and family checking in, you may want to just scan for the info you want and skip over the rest.
It’s now 16 days since my mastectomy (right side) and [...]

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Late-breaking news: The pathology report is in

I just heard from the surgeon that the pathology report showed my lymph nodes were negative (no cancer in them). The blood vessels were also negative and the margins were clear, meaning there was healthy tissue completely surrounding the areas of cancer (i.e., he got it all).
       There were two areas of invasive cancer, meaning [...]

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Still no word on the pathology

I think I’ve learned by now that time in medicine is a rather elastic commodity, not quite as much as in publishing, but still enough to be maddening.
Lloyd and I went for my checkup at the plastic surgeon’s office this morning and the doc was quite pleased. So far mine has been a textbook case…at least the “where [...]

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Three days post-mastectomy and feeling great

Actually I felt great the afternoon of my surgery, just knowing it was behind me. All in all, I have to say it was a piece of cake. I have been up and eating and doing things for myself since Friday afternoon…tho I have milked the opportunity to slug around and watch TV for a [...]

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T’was the night before surgery…

After calming down and feeling fairly mellow that all the news was good, I finally got the copies of the test reports on Tuesday. And…well…they weren’t all as rosy as the nurse had indicate.  The MRI showed another small mass inside the one we know about and it suggests this might be invasive cancer rather [...]

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5 Days Till Mastectomy

With all the craziness of the past few weeks, I think I’ve forgotten to update the blog with the latest. I apologize if some of this is old news. Just fast-forward past anything you already know (or don’t want to know )
In fact, I’ll move the key info to the top and put the [...]

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