we are moving!

Friday was a great day because I got everything scheduled. I now have a surgery date: May 5. Cinco de Mayo. Or SEAGULL DE MAYO as one of my dear friends suggested. So henceforth May 5 will be SEAGULL DE MAYO.

I talked to my plastic surgeon at 1:00. We discussed the options for reconstruction. He strongly recommended immediate reconstruction, which I agreed with . There are some risks involved – with this process I would get to keep my skin and nipple, and the implant would go behind my pectoral muscle. But there’s a risk that parts of the skin or nipple will die, especially if I end up needing radiation after all. Which we won’t know until they actually get the tumors out and do all the pathology on them. And that would involve more intervention and procedures than if I just did the mastectomy now and then waited to see if I needed radiation, then got whatever other treatment I would need, and then, finally, got reconstruction. But if I did that, I would lose the chance to keep my skin and nipple. So I figured that was worth the risk. If it goes badly I will lose them anyway.

We also discussed the “excision biopsy” on the left, and whether I will need any reconstruction after that. I said I wasn’t really too worried about it, especially since the left boob is bigger, and the doc said that my assymetry is favorable. I said, Yeah, Favorable Asymmetry is my new band name.

Right after that a scheduler called me and we set up all my appointments – a big pre-op appointment next week, where I’ll meet with both surgeons, the plastic surgeon’s PA, and a nurse. I’ll get examined and measured again, and then I will meet with the nurse who will help me with all the stuff I need to know and do before surgery.

One of those things is setting up a drive-by COVID-19 test, within 72 hours before surgery. So that is kind of nice, that I will actually get tested, but it also means I am not fucking going anywhere except doctor appointments until after the surgery and healing.

Right after that call, the scheduler called me and set up all my appointments – the pre-op, the surgery, ad a bunch of post-op appointments.

I also had a quick call with the medical oncologist. The upshot of that is that we will talk again a couple of weeks post-surgery after he has seen all of the pathology, and we’ll decide treatment from there..

I’l get a clearer idea of what to expect afterward at the pre-op appointment, but Im’ thinking I will be off work until at least May 26 – the day after Memorial Day, or possibly the Monday after that, which is June 1.

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On Thursday I “went” to an online breast cancer support group. Most of the women were much older than me – I’d guess average age was around 65 – and most were at least a couple of years post-treatment. There was one who had been diagnosed last fall and was done with her treatment – I think she was probably early to mid-50s. There were, I think, 9 total, all white except one Black woman. It was nice, although it did kind of feel like joining a circle of church ladies. It’s only once a month so it’s no big deal to attend. I might like to find a more raw group with some more sweary people in it.