I am 39 years old and have a 2 and 4 year old. I was diagnosed on March 12th with breast cancer. I have since had a double mastectomy on April 10th with immediate reconstruction done at the same time. I had went to my OB a couple weeks before for my regular pap and mentioned that I thought I felt a lump in my right breast. I had felt it for years and so had my other OB's but was wrote off to fibery tissue. This time the doc thought it was a good idea to do a diagnostic mammo. I went in for the Mammo and after the first round of pics she said the radioligist wanted more pics of my left breast so we did more. Then they wanted and ultrasound. A week later I was sent back for a needle biopsy on my left breast and a another lump in my armpit. On the 12 th of March my doc called me in and told me I had cancer in my left breast and the one in my lymph node was clear. I was in shock and not totally surprised because I could tell by the way her assistant was on the phone that something was wrong. I was then sent to a breast specialist and we began going over my options. I only had breast cancer in my left breast and thought that it was my best option for minimal reoccurance to have a bilateral mastectomy. I had a centinneal lymph node dysection at the time of surgery. When I woke after surgery it hurt more then I thought and was very surprised at how large my breast already were with the expanders. The expanders felt like thick rubber like the red kick balls you see on the play grounds. They were stiff and hard and felt very abnormal. I also had 4 drain tubes in place. It felt a little sophicating but was tolerable. By day three I had taken a turn for the better and thought I could conquer this thing. We expected to have the double mastectomy with immediate reconstruction and then after a couple months of filling the expanders and a couple months of stabilzing them we would have one more sugery for the implants. Well things havent gone quite so easy. We went for a follow up appointment on the 17th with my breast surgeon and she said out of 3 lymph nodes that were taken out 1 had come back positive so I had have another surgery to do a full lymph node dysection which we were trying to avoid. We had caught it early, the tumor was small, the cancer was invasive and even knowing it was there my doctor or myself still couldn't find a lump after the needle biopsy so it was pure luck and God that led us to the find. I was very disappointed and again in shock that I had more and would have to do more surgeries and possibly radiation. My whole point of going extreme was to avoid radiation. On my left breast i started to leak from the bottom and little by little it started to split open. My skin was dead and black and looked like a burn victim. I had a follow up with the plastic surgeon and he didn't like the look of the skin but wanted to try and hold off and do surgery at the same time the breast surgeon was going to for the rest of my lymph nodes. He was trying to prevent me from having more surgeries then I needed. By March 27th my expander had actually started coming through the skin and had to go back to my plastic surgeon. My surgery for the lymph nodes was scheduled on the 1 of May and we were trying everything we could to make it to that day. He looked at it again and said its not infected lets try and hold off until the 1st. Well the weekend came and by Sunday it looked a lot worse and was now pink and pussy I was now running a fever. I called his answering service and they advised us to go into the Emergence room. We were admitted and they pumped me with antibiotics and little by little my fever rose and on 30th of March went into to surgery and took out both implants and all the dead skin and infected skin. Then kept me one more night to make sure the infection was gone. I woke up feeling better and the fever had gone down but I was still sore. I was able to move better with the expander's out but was more upset at having no breast then I thought I would be. I was release from the hospital on the 1st and had my husband take me to get the camisole with the fluffy boobs that you can put in your camisole to make you look like you have something. Mentally made me feel better. The plastic surgeon didn't think we would continue rebuilding for 3 months allowing my skin to heal before we started up again. I know in that amount of time I will be in public and I will probably have to go to work and even though I didn't care if people knew they were little pillows I didn't care it made me feel better.
May 2- I think I caught everything up and I am sure I left out a lot and will go back. I thought this blog would help me to look back and see the things I have conquered because I know this is a long road ahead. I had planned my sons 3rd birthday party for the 4th weeks before when I thought all was golden and didn't know of any complications. I was worried about making it but today I feel good and think that things will be ok. On the last surgery they took the 4 drain tubes out and put 2 more back in. I hate the darn things but 2 is better then 4 and can deal with it. For now they are saying my lymph node surgery will be the 9th so I am hoping that goes well. Just from the little they did take the first surgery my left arm is sore and numb on the back so I am expecting that it will be worse. I know longer have stitches rib cage to rig cage after they took the expander's out I just have about 4 inch incisions on both sides and am kinda concave in some spots. Keep reminding myself this is temporary. I was a double D before and I am ok with not being that big again but I want something. I am not a petite girl and just want to be in proportion.
