Surgery - The Final Frontier

The much-anticipated call came from my plastic surgeon's office on Thursday.

Tuesday, February 11, I will have my FINAL surgery. The boulder that was surgically implanted on December 7, 2012 (aka "tissue expander") will finally be removed, my soft, pliable permanent implant put in, and my left breast will get a wee little lift -- hope Dr. M. has a crane handy to do the heavy lifting!! Actually, if you saw me topless (a very scary prospect that I hate subjecting even myself to in the mirror), you would marvel at just how lopsided two breasts can be.  It will be extremely exciting to finally have this surgery and feel back on an even keel again.

I'm not really sure what to expect after my surgery. Even though I have experienced major surgery to the chest area, I don't know where this surgery fits on the "discomfort" and "rehabilitation" scale. Dr. M. will be opening up my mastectomy scar, clear from right to left.  After having such a beautifully-healed scar, it seems a shame that it has to be cut open again, but I guess it does make sense to use the same incision site. However, there will be no incision in my armpit, as there was for my mastectomy to remove the sentinel lymph nodes.  I'm quite sure the armpit incision was what greatly hampered my range of motion, and necessitated most of the rehab. Then there's the lift part ... ???

While searching for a sketch to show you what Dr. M will do to achieve my "lift", I came upon this drawing of the structure of a normal breast.  This was kind of freaky for me to think about, but ...
I no longer have #'s 3, 4, 5, 6, or 7.  That's what my chief surgeon removed during the mastectomy.  When Dr. M. stepped in, he chiseled (yes, I read the OR report -- it actually says, "chiseled") #2 away from #1, to create the pocket that my tissue expander was placed in.  Now I understand why the inflations hurt so much -- that poor tissue was being forced further and further away from where it naturally wanted to be. After this surgery, my layers (starting from the outside) will be #8 (skin), #2 (muscle), new implant, #1 (rib cage). Voila! There you have it in a nutshell.



This image is very close to what Dr. M drew me about my lift procedure.  It looks like the scar will be minimal and, since it's mostly involving just skin, I'm anticipating a speedy recovery.


Definitely, the most impelling part of thinking about February 11 is that it's

THE END!!

No more treatments.

No more surgeries.

Just live life!!