Frankenboobies

Brad is on me again to update so here I go:

I am finally feeling normal again.  I started last week going for my weekly expansions as lets just say it is the most uncomfortable thing I have ever felt in my life.  Today was my second expansion and the easiest way to explain it is it feels like I have a charlie horse in my chest and someone is squeezing my ribs for about 3 days.  It looks like I will have around 4-5 more expansions.  When Dr. Schmidt finishes with expanding I will go in for one more surgery and he will swap out the expanders for the implants.  My boobies look good though.  I was referring to them as frankenboobies because of the scar and steri strips across them but honestly, I am very please with them.  Dr. Schmidt did a great job.  I have a problem just showing them to anyone and telling people to poke them because I really do not think you understand how hard they are until I tell you to push on them.  All I can say is hard as rocks. 

My hair is growing back in.  I like to say I look like a Monchichi.  It is extremely soft and I spend a lot of time rubbing my head. 

It looks like I will start radiation in 10 weeks.  I will only have to go for 5 1/2 to 6 1/2 weeks of treatments.  Not to bad.  I will work through the treatment.  I am starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel.

Brad has been such a wonderful and patient and supportive husband and friend through this entire process.  It is now my turn to take care of him.  He has shoulder surgery tomorrow morning so send some prayers his way please.


So thank you for all of the support and prayers!  I really feel loved. 

Lots of love,
Lisa

And we keep going...

My surgery was June 25th and everything went well. I was cussing again when I came out of the anesthesia. I have never felt so much pain. Thanks to Brad, Kristie and Kelly I was kept company in the hospital and went home the next day with my own nurse Kelly (for those of you who don't know her, we have known each other since 6th grade). She took amazing care of me, even if at times I wanted to punch her in the face because she was making me shower and walk. I was really uncomfortable.  But I love her to death and I am happy she was here to help me. 

So the results are in:

Both breasts were removed. The left breast was free and clear of cancer. Both tumors in my right breast shrunk to about 1 cm.  Unfortuantly my lymph nodes were still positive for cancer. Dr. Weighall removed two layers of nodes from under my right arm and out of 15 nodes only three had cancer. That is good. The disappointing part is now I am going to have to have radiation. 7 weeks, 5 days a week. They will last about 30 minutes so I will do them after school. I meet with my radiologist on Friday so I will know more then. Another good part, my tumors are estrogen and progesterone fed so I will start a pill called Tamoxifen that I will take daily for 10 years. It is a hormone blocker so it will help to keep the cancer from coming back by not giving it what it feeds on. 

As for the reconstruction. Dr. Schmidt was very excited with how well the reconstruction went. He placed expanders in my chest and as of right now I have nice perky B size boobies.  We won't know about the rest of the reconstruction or expanding until after I meet with my radiologist on Friday. 

So I will leave you with a funny story. When I met with Dr. Romer today he had a pre med student following him trying to decide if oncology was something he was interested in. Dr. Romer wanted to see Dr. Schmidt's work. So I showed him. (I will show almost anyone at this point). We encouraged the youngin to touch them because of how hard they are and Dr. Romer was explaining what expanders were. (They are incredibly hard.).The kid's face turned three shades of red. It was hilarious. Highlight of my day. 

Thank you to everyone for the support. I really appreciate it.