On Wednesdays we wear pink...?
I'm 2 1/2 weeks into my diagnosis and things are really overwhelming right now. It's hard to learn you have any kind of devastating diagnosis like cancer, but then to learn your best option for living your actual life is to cut off a pretty important part of your body, well, that's a serious blow.
My husband and I have met with plastic surgeons to find someone who feels like the right fit and someone skilled in the serious art of breast reconstruction. I really lived in a bubble about breast cancer - no real idea as to the actual consequences, how they impact life or what even happens...
I'm learning. Quickly.
The initial step of the reconstruction process involves talking about your own boobs, talking about new boobs, talking about the shape, size, feel, look, etc. and having someone evaluate your body and what kind of boobs will work for you.
This is cancer?! What's happening?
Through it all, I've come to really put a lot of weight on reconstruction, in a way I didn't really think I would. I have never seriously wanted bigger boobs than I have, I've never thought about implants and I've always thought I would be perfectly fine if life and gravity came for my body... But it was life before gravity in this case and it's been really hard to see photos of bilateral mastectomies and imagine myself without reconstruction.
So, in 2 weeks, I will go in for a bilateral mastectomy and the first stage of reconstruction and I'm finding myself strangely grateful for the 36 years I've had with my boobs. So weird but so true.
My next order of business is determining how you give a proper send-off to boobs. One of 'em is trying to kill me, so it could be a mean girl(s) situation, which means that "On Wednesdays we wear pink" might take on a new meaning.
My husband and I have met with plastic surgeons to find someone who feels like the right fit and someone skilled in the serious art of breast reconstruction. I really lived in a bubble about breast cancer - no real idea as to the actual consequences, how they impact life or what even happens...
I'm learning. Quickly.
The initial step of the reconstruction process involves talking about your own boobs, talking about new boobs, talking about the shape, size, feel, look, etc. and having someone evaluate your body and what kind of boobs will work for you.
This is cancer?! What's happening?
Through it all, I've come to really put a lot of weight on reconstruction, in a way I didn't really think I would. I have never seriously wanted bigger boobs than I have, I've never thought about implants and I've always thought I would be perfectly fine if life and gravity came for my body... But it was life before gravity in this case and it's been really hard to see photos of bilateral mastectomies and imagine myself without reconstruction.
So, in 2 weeks, I will go in for a bilateral mastectomy and the first stage of reconstruction and I'm finding myself strangely grateful for the 36 years I've had with my boobs. So weird but so true.
My next order of business is determining how you give a proper send-off to boobs. One of 'em is trying to kill me, so it could be a mean girl(s) situation, which means that "On Wednesdays we wear pink" might take on a new meaning.
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