Monday, February 28, 2011

6 months have passed...

Since I last logged in. I just learned that another cancer survivor who was following my blog and I was following her progress, passed away last month. So it goes with all the others who have lost their fights recently, hearing that the same people who sat next to me in chemo are no longer with us- too sad, a cure has to be found soon!
So since my last log in, back in July!!!! I got my boobs! First phase they put in tissue expanders under my chest wall and transplanted skin and muscle from my back to the front since the radiated skin won't stretch due to tissue damage. Left me with two more ugly scars on my back but what's two more scars if it means I get to have boobs again? When I came out of surgery, I actually had little lumps! They were so cute, like little A-cups! Toni likes to tell people I was singing "my lovely lady lumps!" to the nurses- for a couple hours at least, until the drugs started to wear off! Didn't get sick- but I think I threatened every nurse and doctor how ugly it would get if they didn't drug me up properly for the surgery, I always get sick- no matter how much I warn then, or how many times they tell me that I won't!
I was home for about 2 weeks is all, once I got my coumadin levels back to normal and stopped having to give myself injections of blood thinners- back to work!
Work, that's a whole 'nother story! When I was coming out of my surgery haze- I turned on my cell phone only to find several voicemails and a mailbox full of text messages. Biggest lay-off (to that date) took place that day, several of my peers, friends and those that I supervised of the support staff pool were layed off due to budget issues. That was a tough one to take, not only was I in horrible pain, I didn't know if I even had a job to go back to. I paniced and called my boss, thankfully he answered and reassured me that I still had a position to return to...and again the survivor's guilt! Because if I was also being let go, I was going to promptly march out of that surgery center that day! I think I spent the entire night on the phone with the ladies that I worked with and had supervised checking up on how they were doing. Unbelieveable!
I was in the hospital for about 3 days then returned home so that Toni could take care of me. And she loved every minute of it!