The start of the journey

Well I'm now two weeks post bilateral mastectomy and I cannot believe how far I have come already. Post surgery I felt great, mainly because I had a PCA pump which was my best friend for 3 days. My breast surgeon, Mr Lee Jackson and his team at RPH were fantastic and the care I received was excellent. I had 4 drains in situ post surgery, 2 removed on day 3 and the other 2 were removed at day 7 post surgery. I didn't miss dragging those around with me, however I did miss the shoulder bag as I used to put my purse and mobile phone in it along with the drains. Unfortunately, I have developed wound infections in both breast, so this is delaying my recovery a tad, but not a major set back. The scar line itself is very sore and I find that my sides through to my sternum (breast bone) gets very tight and this is quite irritating towards the end of the day. However, I have found a fantastic remedy for this, my wonderful husband gives me a gentle (it's has to be gentle) massage to relieve the tightness. It's the thing I treasure most at the moment and look forward to of an evening. The surgical bras are comfy but by the end of the day, I'm in a tizz with them, desperately wanting to ping the dam thing off and run free without it, mmmm that ain't gonna happen!!! So, onto the positives, I have a fantastic new pair of breast, albeit that they are only the expanders at the mo, but hey these puppies are going to look to so cute when it's all over! Having been told by my surgeon that whilst my decision to have a mastectomy due to my family history, fate would have it that the pathology showed that I had already developed pre cancerous mutating cells and that my right breast was riddled with these mutant ninjas, so thankfully they can do no damaged as they are in a pot somewhere in a path lab!! I am only 2 weeks into my post surgery journey, for me despite my tedious moans, it has been a very positive experience. Psychologically, I have had no problems adjusting to my new enhanced breasts. I will have nipple tattooing in the future, when the time is right and I can now sleep at night knowing that I made the right decision, at the right time for the right reasons and I would and will whole heartedly support anyone who is going to or is going through this life changing procedure. To add to this, I am a Registered Nurse of 30 years with vast experience in chronic disease and emergency medicine and yet, this was no straight forward decision. I have had to watch 2 generations of my family go through breast cancer and ovarian cancer surgery and treatment. Everything I thought I knew, was in fact nothing at all. You are no loner the health professional but the patient and wanted to be treated as such. I owe a huge thank you to the support of my husband, who has been with me every step of my decision and journey. His involvement and his psychological needs had to be taken into consideration, he is very much part of this process. After all besides me, he is the only other person, who has to look at me everyday and live with the decision we made together. So, onwards and upwards, with a positive mind set :-)