Saturday, March 1, 2014
Hello all. I will be going through a breast reconstruction very shortly and I want to post my thoughts and experiences as I go through this. I wish that I had done this when I went through the cancer and mastectomy. I will post some before and after pictures, so please be aware of this with little eyes around. The procedure that I will be getting done is a TRAM flap. I will be getting a tummy tuck and the tissue from this will be tunneled under the skin and then used to reconstruct the new breasts. My surgeon will be Dr. Cassidy Mitchell. He is located in Lincoln, Nebraska. Dr. Mitchell says this surgery will last 6-8 hours. The recovery time afterwards will be 4-5 months and no lifting at all during recovery. I live about 3-4 hours away from Lincoln. There will be numerous trips to Lincoln after the surgery. My sister Carla is coming to live with me. She has had her share of problems and didn't have anywhere to go, so I offered her a place to stay. Her coming here to live is a God-send. This will help her out and me out. I didn't know what I was going to do or who I was going to get to help me out. So this move will benefit both of us. I am so looking forward to seeing her again. I can't wait for her to get here. She will be leaving North Carolina on Friday, March 7th. She should get here around Monday through Wednesday, depending on how far she drives each day. My first procedure will be March 13th. The doctor wants to do an out-patient procedure to help make the blood vessels more viable. I am not really sure what will be done but I will tell you more about it after it is done.

I am excited and scared at the same time. This is going to be very painful. When they did the double mastectomy I was cut from back to back, all the way across my chest except for a finger wide piece in the middle. This time I will be cut there again, along with being cut from hip to hip, to do the tummy tuck. I know this will be extremely painful. I am not looking forward to the pain. Right now I have pain due to my fibromyalgia. That will get worse with the surgery. But I am looking forward to the end results, to have boobs again. At times I am self-conscious about not having any. At first it didn't bother me, it was kind of nice not having those 10 pounds on my chest. But I am ready to get them back. Make me feel like a woman again. It will be a difficult 6 months but well worth it in the end.

Will post more later.

A note

I remember what it was like when just starting out in Paint Shop Pro. There are lots of wonderful tuts out there, but most of them are for experienced taggers. It is hard to find a tut if you are a beginner, so I will try to write all my tuts so the beginner can learn and follow along. There will be lots of screen shots to make it easier on you. I apologize to the experienced taggers, but I think that it is good to help out the beginners all we can. Thanks for understanding.

Contributors

Followers