Let me start out by saying, I LOVE MY PLASTIC SURGEON!
I had my first appointment with him yesterday. I put make up on and I wore jewelry. I don't know why. I had intended to have my sister take pictures of me in the papery exam gown for the blog. Buuuuut I took too long getting ready and ended up not having time to pick her up. Oh me.
So the nurse brings me into the exam room and I automatically start to take off my shirt. I know the drill. She tells me to wait, that the doctor would like to speak with me first and then after he'll do the exam. Well that's nice. I feel more confident when I'm not sweating underneath that stupid paper shirt thing. Anyway, I digress. Dr. Jacob comes in and we sit down and he says he wants to start with any questions I might have and then we can move on to his bit. I like this because I am literally about to explode with questions, or rather, demands. We go through a lot of Q&A and I ask about the types of implants available. He says he'll bring them in after my exam so I can look/feel them. Finally I get to my questions about pain management. I explained to him that watching my sister suffer through excruciating pain after her surgery scared the bejesus out of me. Then he launches into his spiel.
Dr. J starts by saying I probably didn't find any of this in my online research because as far as he knows he's one of the only doctors in the US to perform this technique but his method is way less painful than the traditional method. In the traditional method, the pectoral muscles are cut away from the 6th and 7th bone on the rib cage to make a pocket for the expanders. Then the muscle is sewn back onto the rib cage. The pain associated with mastectomies and reconstructions is mainly due to the muscle trauma. Well my PS places the expanders OVER the muscle, therefore eliminating the pain that would come from my pectoral muscles. The empty expanders will be placed in immediately following my mastectomy and they'll be visible as there's not much tissue to cover it. He'll use Alloderm (a matrix of donated human tissue) to secure it in. Then over a period of at least three months, he'll inject saline into my expanders until I am expanded to the size I'm happy with. Then I'll have another surgery to switch out the expanders for the permanent implants.
Now comes the fun part! He brought in this case of implants! It was Christmas morning! He starts "Now you can have your choice of any implant, but if I were you I'd go with...." and I jump in and exclaim (probably a bit too loudly) "THE GUMMI BEAR IMPLANTS?" and he smiles and commends me on my research and good taste. He first hands me the saline implants. I felt like Goldilocks. This implant is too watery. Then he hands me a silicon implant. This implant is okay, but feels nothing like a real breast. Lastly, he gives me the "Gummi Bear" implant. This one is JUST RIGHT! It feels and looks like the exact replica of a normal breast. Also, there's no worry of the implant rupturing and leaking into my body. When cut in half, it remains in two separate pieces. No liquid comes out when it is punctured. Ladies and gentlemen, we have a winner!
After we nail out the logistics we began chit-chatting and he asks where I work. When people ask that I usually say "a research company called...." but since I had done my research on him and knew he had particular interest in up and coming medical research I told him the name and he knew it right away. We nerd talked for a bit and then I asked him about his side project. He totally beamed with pride and asked how I knew about that. Google of course. Basically he's invented a new type of expander that expands with CO2 rather than saline. The patient has a remote and can inflate according to the doctors instructions from the comfort of her own home. How cool is that???? It's still in the testing stage though and apparently the inventor can't be the tester because it's a conflict of interest.
So that was my appointment in a nutshell. I am so extremely pleased with my surgical team. They have taken my anxiety level from an 8 down to a 1. Next step is to wait for the scheduler to call me to set up surgery and I'll get my date. Stay tuned!
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