Final Surgery

I had my final surgery on Monday! Aside from a follow-up appointment on Friday, I am completely done lowering my breast cancer risk from a lifetime percent of 75% to 5%! I'm just so relieved. It's hard to put into words how I feel.

Let's talk about the results from Monday's surgery instead. This is something I know how to put into words. I showed up for surgery on Monday at 7:15AM and I was tired. I waited in the outpatient waiting room for about an hour and a half. Most of the time I was asleep on my husband's shoulder. I stayed up way too late the night before. Finally they called me in and the prep time was very quick. My doctor came in, drew two arrows on my chest pointing down to my breasts. In case they forget they're operating on my breasts??? The anesthesiologist came to my little curtained off room and asked me if I wanted a cocktail to relax me before they wheeled me into the OR. What kind of question is that? OF COURSE I WANT A COCKTAIL! Into my IV goes that delicious blend of noodle-body-inducing drugs and off I go into the OR. My doctor comes to me and tells me they might have to use saline implants instead of the original silicon gel implants we had discussed for now and that they'd swap them out at a later time for my permanent silicon implants. Huh?!?! He explained why but I was in la-la-land! I wish my doctor would have explained this to me prior to the "relaxation cocktail" but oh well. I say okay and then I fall asleep. Apparently I didn't need anesthesia to fall asleep. The administered that after I was already out. I woke up what seemed two minutes later and I was done. They let me fall back asleep and I slept in the recovery room for about an hour before they let my mom and husband come into the room. Blessed nurses. I don't really remember anything that happened during the time I woke up right after surgery and the time I woke up to change to go home. I asked some one, I can't remember who, whether or not they used silicon or saline implants and I was informed they ended up using silicon implants. Hooray! No more replacement surgeries! Also, I was told I would have to have drain tubes, so of course the second question I ask was "drain tubes?" and to my surprise, there were none! Apparently they weren't needed!

The nurse got me dressed and told me to eat bland food for 24 hours. There went my plans for sushi.

In the car with my husband, he told me that Dr J. filled them in on my progress once he had finished surgery. Josh (my husband) told me that Dr J. seemed to really focus on wanting to make sure I was happy. He said he brought it up several times in their conversation.

When we got home, the first thing I did was take off my top. I wanted to see the new girls right away. Holy smokes! I have cleavage and they are DEFINITELY bigger than they were prior to the day's surgery.  I went into surgery thinking I was going to come out smaller than the expander size due to the popped expander snafu or at least the same size as I currently was but I am pretty darn voluptuous in the chest area. As for what to expect pain-wise after a replacement surgery, I didn't experience too much. It was maybe a 2 when I wasn't moving around and a 4 when I did. Nothing a vicodin couldn't handle. The only pain I was experiencing was from the internal incision my doctor made on the inside crease of each breast. During my expander surgery, my PS had stitched up the crease to keep the expanders from bottoming out, so during the replacement surgery he cut that stitched up area. Other than that, the incision on each side of my breasts itched and that was about it. Today I'm experiencing some soreness and swelling but luckily I am working from home today so not a lot of moving.

I am so pleased with the outcome. I couldn't be happier!

What's next? Well next comes the more complicated part. BRCA 1 gene mutation also means that I'm at a higher risk of ovarian cancer and also at risk of contracting ovarian cancer at a young age. Testing begins at 30 and my doctors have recommended an oophorectomy by the time I'm 35. As most of you know, I don't have kids and it's definitely something my husband and I are planning on. I worry that if we wait to have kids and wait to get my ovaries removed, I might be racing the clock. There is no history of ovarian cancer in my family but researchers just don't know enough on whether or not that matters. My next few posts might not come for a while, but at the moment, I'm thinking they'll be centered around decisions regarding children and my ovaries. I have plans to talk to my geneticist about timing and statistics on ovarian cancer age diagnoses. So stick around, there's more to come!