"... that's a wonderful idea!"
As I mentioned in my last blog, I went to see Dr. Alice Police about my thoughts regarding having a preventative mastectomy on the left side. A second after I said that, she exclaimed, "I think that is a wonderful idea!" I was a little surprised by her enthusiasm. I said, "You do? Why didn't you mention it before?" She said that she didn't want to sound like a surgeon who just wants to cut. But she said, "You are high risk for it. I've seen this many times before." We felt a few lumps and some pain in my left breast, so she did a mammogram and a sonogram of it to be sure everything is healthy right now. So far, nothing is showing up. Good news. Her suggestion is to wait till after radiation and before Dr. Kaidi wants to put the implant in the right side. She said that he will want to put an expander in the left one, like he did the right one.
I hope I am not making this story complicated. I think some people think I have had the old fashioned mastectomy where I am flat. No. I have a breast on the right. She did a "skin sparing mastectomy" where she scooped out the entire inside up to 1mm of the skin. She had to in order to get the entire 5 mm tumor. I have a small 2 inch scar near my underarm. She said the mastectomy on the left will be much easier because there is no tumor and no lymph nodes to take out. That also means no chemotherapy and no radiation. Dr. Police and Dr. Kaidi will be a team on this one again and he will put the expander in and I'll get expanded over 3 months or so. She reminded me that Dr. Kaidi won't want to do anything to the right breast for a while because he wants the skin to heal completely after radiation.
Now, the only question is WHEN? I could do it as soon as January, or as late as March. I'd like to be back to work for a while, so I think I'm going to go for March.
I'm thankful that everything is happening smoothly and there are no hiccups so far. I'm also thankful that the left breast is under my control right now, that I don't have any tumors to worry about. I'm very thankful for the many people who care about me.
What are YOU thankful for?
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