Monday, January 11, 2010
Surgery Update 2
Megan is out of surgery! I spoke to Dr McSteamy a little while ago and he was pleased with the results and everything was without incident (as expected). Megan is resting comfortably and I'll be able to see her in the recovery room after she "sobers up" from the anethesia.
Surgery Update
Things are a bit behind at the hospital, but just a few minutes ago at ~2:10 PM I saw Megan off to the operating room. Aside from being quite hungry, Megan is in great spirits and looking forward to being on the other side of today. The surgery will take about 1.5 hours, and she'll have another 2 hours or so in the recovery room to sleep off the anesthesia. I'll write back soon when I have more information available!
Surgery Today
I just realized I never posted my surgery time. We have to arrive at the day surgery center at 11:30, which means I probably won't actually go in until 12:30 or 1. The surgeon says it should take about an hour to an hour and a half, but we'll probably be there for 5 hours.
I'm so hungry!!!
I'm so hungry!!!
Tuesday, January 5, 2010
Building a Better Boob
Today I had my pre-op consult with my plastic surgeon (Tabouli McSteamy, you may remember from a blog entry almost 2 years ago). Yikes, it's been a long time. Anyway, we are about to complete what I hope to be the last stage of reconstruction - nipple reconstruction. At this point, it kind of seems a little too much to write about in a public forum to my family and friends, but why stop now?
Before the bilateral mastectomy, my oncological surgeon recommended that he remove both nipples as well as the breast tissue. The nipples are a part of the breast where cancer can grow, so they are oftentimes removed during a mastectomy. It was pretty much a sure thing with the side that had cancer, but I thought for the sake of symmetry (and to prevent recurrence, of course) I would be okay with removing the right one, too.
Several months after my tissue expander exchange I was mostly happy with the shape and feel of the new boobs, but there was definitely something missing. Well, two somethings. I thought I would be okay with getting nipples tattooed on, but the incision was slightly dog-eared and getting that fixed would require another surgery anyway. I decided pretty early on that I wanted to have nipple reconstruction, too.
The radiation on my left side has definitely left my left breast feeling different. The tissue is not as soft, and it's slightly redder. If it hadn't been radiated, my surgeon could have created a nipple using my existing skin. Instead, he'll take some skin from my inner thigh to prevent problems with wound healing. I've had a hard time finding details on how this is done, but here is a medical journal article with some pretty good pictures taken during the surgery. You'll want to scroll down to the "Technique" section and click on the "Figure" links to see how it works. Interesting stuff, but I'm glad I'll be asleep during the procedure.
The surgery is scheduled for Monday, January 11th, and it's expected to last about an hour. I'll go home with bandages that I can't remove until my post-op appointment on the following Monday. That means no showering for a week. Yeah! I'll have some discomfort at the donor site, but I hope to return to work on the Wednesday after my post-op appointment. It's supposedly a much less intense surgery than the tissue expander exchange (and certainly a lot easier than the mastectomy), but I think the skin graft thing makes the healing process a lot more fragile.
I'm pretty excited about the whole thing, but work has been kind of crazy so I'm not looking forward to losing all that time and then coming back afterward.
I believe you may be treated to a blog from at least one guest blogger on that day, but I may check in before then when I know the time of my surgery (to be determined on Friday). Thanks for reading!
Before the bilateral mastectomy, my oncological surgeon recommended that he remove both nipples as well as the breast tissue. The nipples are a part of the breast where cancer can grow, so they are oftentimes removed during a mastectomy. It was pretty much a sure thing with the side that had cancer, but I thought for the sake of symmetry (and to prevent recurrence, of course) I would be okay with removing the right one, too.
Several months after my tissue expander exchange I was mostly happy with the shape and feel of the new boobs, but there was definitely something missing. Well, two somethings. I thought I would be okay with getting nipples tattooed on, but the incision was slightly dog-eared and getting that fixed would require another surgery anyway. I decided pretty early on that I wanted to have nipple reconstruction, too.
The radiation on my left side has definitely left my left breast feeling different. The tissue is not as soft, and it's slightly redder. If it hadn't been radiated, my surgeon could have created a nipple using my existing skin. Instead, he'll take some skin from my inner thigh to prevent problems with wound healing. I've had a hard time finding details on how this is done, but here is a medical journal article with some pretty good pictures taken during the surgery. You'll want to scroll down to the "Technique" section and click on the "Figure" links to see how it works. Interesting stuff, but I'm glad I'll be asleep during the procedure.
The surgery is scheduled for Monday, January 11th, and it's expected to last about an hour. I'll go home with bandages that I can't remove until my post-op appointment on the following Monday. That means no showering for a week. Yeah! I'll have some discomfort at the donor site, but I hope to return to work on the Wednesday after my post-op appointment. It's supposedly a much less intense surgery than the tissue expander exchange (and certainly a lot easier than the mastectomy), but I think the skin graft thing makes the healing process a lot more fragile.
I'm pretty excited about the whole thing, but work has been kind of crazy so I'm not looking forward to losing all that time and then coming back afterward.
I believe you may be treated to a blog from at least one guest blogger on that day, but I may check in before then when I know the time of my surgery (to be determined on Friday). Thanks for reading!
Saturday, November 28, 2009
N.E.D.
N.E.D.
That stands for "No Evidence of Disease". It's a term that I've seen thrown around a lot in the online community for cancer patients and survivors. It's an accurate way to describe my situation, and many cancer "survivors". We don't know if we've been cured. Most likely, you never really know if you've been cured, at least not until you die of something else. I think doctors avoid using the word "cure" for that reason. They really can't look a patient in the eye and honestly tell them that they have been cured.
Today marks one year since I have finished cancer treatments, and there is no evidence of disease. Last year, on the day after Thanksgiving, I had my final radiation treatment. My muscles and tissue on my left side are still a little off - I know that's because of the radiation. I can't stretch as well there, and it's not as soft. That should gradually get better, but this may be as good as it gets. I guess I can live with that :-)
Sometimes I get sad, amazed, and emotional when I think about all I've been through, but I don't think about it as much anymore. At one point I couldn't go an hour without thinking about cancer. Then I couldn't go a day. It gets easier and easier to think of myself as a normal person. I still have very frequent check-ins with my oncologist, I have little to no estrogen in my body, and I still look at my naked chest and know it's not normal. However, it's now a normal part of life.
And, now, time for a Red Letter Year goal check-in:
1) Instead of running a marathon, I did a half marathon. I'm not upset about it. I am so proud of the 13.1 mile distance :-)
2) I am scheduled for surgery on January 11th for nipples. Yay! It is a little later than I'd hoped, but I'm okay with it. The longer I wait, the better it will look with respect to the radiated side.
3) I am SO going to wear a bikini in Jamaica in just about 2 weeks. I have been working so hard to be healthy, exercise a lot, and eat well. I think I am on track with a last minute push at the end. I can't wait!
That stands for "No Evidence of Disease". It's a term that I've seen thrown around a lot in the online community for cancer patients and survivors. It's an accurate way to describe my situation, and many cancer "survivors". We don't know if we've been cured. Most likely, you never really know if you've been cured, at least not until you die of something else. I think doctors avoid using the word "cure" for that reason. They really can't look a patient in the eye and honestly tell them that they have been cured.
Today marks one year since I have finished cancer treatments, and there is no evidence of disease. Last year, on the day after Thanksgiving, I had my final radiation treatment. My muscles and tissue on my left side are still a little off - I know that's because of the radiation. I can't stretch as well there, and it's not as soft. That should gradually get better, but this may be as good as it gets. I guess I can live with that :-)
Sometimes I get sad, amazed, and emotional when I think about all I've been through, but I don't think about it as much anymore. At one point I couldn't go an hour without thinking about cancer. Then I couldn't go a day. It gets easier and easier to think of myself as a normal person. I still have very frequent check-ins with my oncologist, I have little to no estrogen in my body, and I still look at my naked chest and know it's not normal. However, it's now a normal part of life.
And, now, time for a Red Letter Year goal check-in:
1) Instead of running a marathon, I did a half marathon. I'm not upset about it. I am so proud of the 13.1 mile distance :-)
2) I am scheduled for surgery on January 11th for nipples. Yay! It is a little later than I'd hoped, but I'm okay with it. The longer I wait, the better it will look with respect to the radiated side.
3) I am SO going to wear a bikini in Jamaica in just about 2 weeks. I have been working so hard to be healthy, exercise a lot, and eat well. I think I am on track with a last minute push at the end. I can't wait!
Sunday, October 4, 2009
2:41:36
Today I ran a half marathon in 2:41:36. I am tired, but happy :-)
I was kind of dreading today because I was afraid my knee was going to act up. As you may know, I've been training for a marathon, but I hurt my knee (I-T band syndrome). I saw a sports orthopedist, and I've been doing physical therapy for the last 7 weeks. It has been working slowly, but two weeks ago I attempted to do an 8 mile run and I failed miserably. At 6 miles, my knee hurt so badly I had to completely stop. I had this stabbing pain that came on suddenly. The experience really brought my confidence level way down. Add to that the fact that today was supposed to be a washout (according to the forecast a few days ago), and I was kind of down in the dumps about today.
BUT, it actually went really well. Although I didn't feel prepared because my last few long runs were pretty rough, I knew that this distance was something I could do. I've run close to this distance before, so mentally I knew I could do it. Also, the weather turned out to be pretty good. It was cloudy, but that meant the sun wasn't beating down on us. The temperature was about 60 degrees - not too warm and not too cold.
Terri and Rusty both ran with me for the first 6 or 7 miles. We were following the Galloway method (taking walk breaks) and keeping a pretty good pace. I popped an Aleve at mile 7.5, and I really didn't have much pain until the 10th mile. It started to hurt, but once I was that far, it was nothing I couldn't handle. Rusty broke away at the 8th mile or so (he runs much faster than me, and I don't mind if he goes ahead), but Terri stayed with me the whole way. I would have been just fine if she wanted to go ahead, but having her run with me kept me motivated. We skipped our last two walk breaks and crossed the finish line at the same time. My goal was to finish in under 3 hours, and I was really hoping to be done in under 2:45. We killed that goal!
It felt like such a great accomplishment. I'm so happy I did it. Along the way, our "athletic supporters" (Mom, Billy, Sarah, and Alex) were there to cheer us on. It was so motivating. They drove around during the race and came to see us every 3 or 4 miles. It made me so happy :-) At about mile 9, there was this large crowd of people with pink shirts cheering their runner. I looked at Terri and said "I'm just going to pretend they're my cheering section". Then I realized that our cheering section was right there with them! It was so awesome.
At the very end, I got really teary-eyed and it was hard to breathe. At 13 miles, I knew I was so close! It wasn't the goal I originally planned, but it still felt huge. My mom ran along with me, but we told her she had to slow down so she didn't beat me ;-) Terri and I crossed at the same time and it was done. We went to the beer tent to get our free beer (yum... we really only do races that have free beer) and then we grabbed some lunch and hung out in Hampton for a few hours. There was this cool bar above the boardwalk with an acoustic guitarist playing all kinds of classic rock songs - the kind of setlist where you know every song.
Ahh... It really was a great day. I have a couple of pictures from the event, but I hope to have more soon.
This is me and Rusty pre-race (still smiling):
This is Rusty at about 9 miles (he broke away from us a mile or two earlier):
I will probably have more soon, but for now I think I'm ready for bed!
I was kind of dreading today because I was afraid my knee was going to act up. As you may know, I've been training for a marathon, but I hurt my knee (I-T band syndrome). I saw a sports orthopedist, and I've been doing physical therapy for the last 7 weeks. It has been working slowly, but two weeks ago I attempted to do an 8 mile run and I failed miserably. At 6 miles, my knee hurt so badly I had to completely stop. I had this stabbing pain that came on suddenly. The experience really brought my confidence level way down. Add to that the fact that today was supposed to be a washout (according to the forecast a few days ago), and I was kind of down in the dumps about today.
BUT, it actually went really well. Although I didn't feel prepared because my last few long runs were pretty rough, I knew that this distance was something I could do. I've run close to this distance before, so mentally I knew I could do it. Also, the weather turned out to be pretty good. It was cloudy, but that meant the sun wasn't beating down on us. The temperature was about 60 degrees - not too warm and not too cold.
Terri and Rusty both ran with me for the first 6 or 7 miles. We were following the Galloway method (taking walk breaks) and keeping a pretty good pace. I popped an Aleve at mile 7.5, and I really didn't have much pain until the 10th mile. It started to hurt, but once I was that far, it was nothing I couldn't handle. Rusty broke away at the 8th mile or so (he runs much faster than me, and I don't mind if he goes ahead), but Terri stayed with me the whole way. I would have been just fine if she wanted to go ahead, but having her run with me kept me motivated. We skipped our last two walk breaks and crossed the finish line at the same time. My goal was to finish in under 3 hours, and I was really hoping to be done in under 2:45. We killed that goal!
It felt like such a great accomplishment. I'm so happy I did it. Along the way, our "athletic supporters" (Mom, Billy, Sarah, and Alex) were there to cheer us on. It was so motivating. They drove around during the race and came to see us every 3 or 4 miles. It made me so happy :-) At about mile 9, there was this large crowd of people with pink shirts cheering their runner. I looked at Terri and said "I'm just going to pretend they're my cheering section". Then I realized that our cheering section was right there with them! It was so awesome.
At the very end, I got really teary-eyed and it was hard to breathe. At 13 miles, I knew I was so close! It wasn't the goal I originally planned, but it still felt huge. My mom ran along with me, but we told her she had to slow down so she didn't beat me ;-) Terri and I crossed at the same time and it was done. We went to the beer tent to get our free beer (yum... we really only do races that have free beer) and then we grabbed some lunch and hung out in Hampton for a few hours. There was this cool bar above the boardwalk with an acoustic guitarist playing all kinds of classic rock songs - the kind of setlist where you know every song.
Ahh... It really was a great day. I have a couple of pictures from the event, but I hope to have more soon.
This is me and Rusty pre-race (still smiling):
This is Rusty at about 9 miles (he broke away from us a mile or two earlier):
I will probably have more soon, but for now I think I'm ready for bed!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)