One down, two to go!

I'm here, but my ovaries are not. Nor are my fallopian tubes. History. Gone. Kaput. Outta there! Had my surgery on Thursday, sent home the same day with pain meds. I'm doing pretty well overall--a little pain, a little soreness. I can't really sit upright, but other than that...

My surgery was relatively simple and the best news is that they didn't find any thing but my (almost) 40-year-old ovaries waiting for them. No strange cells or tumors, yay! I am relieved.

I'll be out of work for about a week, and can't lift anything over 10 lbs. for a while, but this surgery has been much easier than anything else I've had to do so far. The best part, I'm not supposed to vacuum, mop, sweep, or do any heavy housework for 6 weeks, yeah baby. Bring on the good news, it's about time.

Next surgery scheduled for April 21, my bilateral mastectomy with tissue expanders. What the hell are tissue expanders, you may ask. Let me tell you a little about the upcoming surgery. So, here's what's gonna happen. I go in and there will be 2 surgeons tending to me during my stay. In a 5-6 hour surgery, Dr. W, my breast cancer surgeon, will "core out" the breast tissue, getting rid of as much of the breast tissue as possible, while trying to leave as much skin in tact as she can. The nipples gotta go though. Once she has taken out tissue, they will make sure the skin is in good shape. If the skin is doing well, i.e. not dying due to lack of blood supply, then I get to keep it.

Dr. Z, the plastic surgeon, then steps in and places a saline "balloon" of sorts into the breast cavity. This cavity is then closed over with the skin and sealed. Before the seal, drains are inserted, 2 on each breast, to drain fluid out of the breast cavity (I know, DISGUSTING!). These will stay in up to 2 weeks. Yuck! After about 2-4 weeks, barring no problems, I start regular visits to Dr. Z's office to have the saline "balloons" pumped up. Depending on my pain threshold, they will inject anywhere from 60-100 cc of saline weekly to stretch the skin over the "balloon." Thus, expanding the cavity/skin for my final implants.

After about 4-6 months of doing this expansion, I will schedule another surgery in which the saline expanders are removed and replaced with silicone implants. The silicone implants will be a size of my choice and will have to be replaced once every 10-20 years or so depending on their "wear and tear."

The bilateral mastectomy means a night in the hospital with serious pain meds on board afterwards. The second surgery to replace the saline, isn't supposed to be quite as lengthy and I am supposed to be able to go home the same day.

That's probably much more than you EVER wanted to know about mastectomies, right? Now you know.