Ta-ta to the tata's!

There has been a recall on all 1981 model Cristal Hydo's for faulty parts. Tomorrow I'm taking her into the shop to get worked on.

I wasn't nervous until I started getting a lot of "good luck"s and "I'll be thinking about you"s at my last day of work on Friday. I'm not even sure why I'm nervous. I am positive nothing will go wrong and that I'll heal quickly. I have the best surgeon around and a great plastic surgeon as well. I guess since I've never actually had surgery before (except for wisdom teeth), I just don't know what to expect!



My friends and family have been great (as usual). Earlier in the week we had a "Ta-ta to the tata's" bowling party and I bowled a 144 (I have photographic evidence to prove it). I also picked out my new tata's:

Tonight my friends surprised me with a big dinner at Rocco's Tacos. My parents, youngest sister, and grandma are here for my surgery and to help out at home. I'm all packed and ready to head to the hospital in the AM.

Pre-op

Days until surgery: 5
Number of eyelashes: 12 (11 on the left, 1 on the right)
Hair length: Still about 1 mm

I went in for my pre-op appointment this morning for my mastectomy on Monday. What I have to do to prepare is not take any medications that would thin my blood, do not eat or drink after midnight the night before my surgery, and wash the surgical area with anti-bacterial soap the night before and the morning of my surgery.

My surgery is first thing in the morning so I have to be there at 6AM. They will take me to pre-op, knock me out with anesthesia, and when I wake up I'll be in recovery. Seems simple enough, right? I'm getting a bi-lateral mastectomy (both sides taken out) and lymph node removal on my left side only. This is done by my breast surgeon. Then my plastic surgeon will put in tissue expanders and drains and they'll sew me back up.

I've been trying to figure out what I can do to prepare at home for my surgery. The recommendations I've gotten have been to buy cami's and button up shirts (a shopping trip? Deal!) because it'll be hard for me to reach over my head to put clothes on. Also helpful is to move dishes, food, etc on lower shelves because I won't be able to reach them for awhile. I have family members who will be staying with me so they should be able to help me with all the lifting and reaching that I need. I went into my closet and arranged it so all the button-up shirts are in one section. I don't know what else to do to prepare, so I'll just relax and wait!

It's a date!

The date is set for my mastectomy: April 19th, 8 AM. I'm having my surgery at the Jupiter hospital. I expect to be there for about two days (the day of and the day after). First my surgeon will remove the breast tissue and perform a sentinel lymph node dissection. He's going to remove the first lymph node (and possibly a few more) closest to the breast, the sentinel or watchdog lymph node, and test it for cancer. If it's clean, he doesn't need to remove any others. The idea of doing this is to reduce the risk for lymphadema. Lymphadema is a pain in the butt side effect where the fluid won't drain out of your arm because the fluid-drainers (the lymph nodes) were removed. It's permanent and painful so we don't want any of that.

Next, the plastic surgeon is going to put in spacers. These will keep my skin stretched out while I'm going through radiation. The skin is very elastic, like a rubber band, so we're going to put in the spacers to keep the shape.

It should take me a few (~3) weeks to heal and I can start my radiation after that. Then when radiation is through I can start reconstruction.