Aloha! Welcome to another section on the standards of care. We talked about chemotherapy earlier this month. Today it is going to be surgery.

The information about surgery has been culled from the American Cancer Society website. Please read and be well informed. The picture above was from my total mastectomy with lymph node removal. It was a 5.5 hour surgery. The initial mastectomy, followed by plastic surgery. I had a tissue expander inserted. Recovery was long…..

The mistake I made was to compare this surgery to a C-Section. That was the biggest mistake of my life! Recovery was long and it was hard. I could not shower for 3 weeks because I had drains and we were trying to avoid infections. When I went to South Africa this time last year, I still had the tissue expander. It had to stay there for 6 months after radiotherapy. The plastic surgeon did not want to take it out and have me go to South Africa. Immediately I came back, I went for the second round of surgery to insert the final implant. Today I have one perky foob and the one I came to the world with. I take that one for yearly mammograms and I thank God there was no evidence of disease this year.

Please follow the link from ACS. It could not have been narrated better. Please take care of yourself and be well informed.

xoxo