Tell me what you dont like about yourself....

Lol I have obviously watched too much Nip Tuck and that is all I could envision the plastic surgeon saying to me as I sat in his "office" for the first time. It wasn't exactly a "Tell me what you don't like about yourself" kind of visit though. I was really looking forward to this one today, because I have been told that this was FINALLY where you get some answers and, viola!

Luckily it worked out where Joey was able to come to this appointment with me. We were both pretty excited. I was scheduled to go see the plastic surgeon that works with Dr. Grube, Dr. Fusi, today at 4:30. So we did the usual of dropping off the kiddos with great friends (THANKS BREEZY!!) and headed out a bit early since we didn't know where we were going. All of the previous appointments have been in New Haven at Yale which is a 50 minute drive, so this 35 minute drive was a bit of a break. Of course, me and my bad sense of direction, wrote down the directions wrong and we turned left off the freeway instead of right. I had been smart and wrote down the phone number and called before my husband was TOO angry with me. We got into the tiny 4 chaired waiting room and I filled out paperwork AGAIN, then waited for a few minutes before being lead into an exam type room. Sadly for Joey there was no taking off of my shirt and putting on a gown, haha.

Dr. Fusi came in and, obviously you can tell by his name, that he is foreign. He was tan skinned, older and very soft spoken with a slight accent. I felt at ease almost right away with the way he looked me in the eye and shook my hand. The first thing he asked me was how old I am and what makes me want a mastectomy . I explained the whole situation with cancer being extremely widespread in my family, how the gene was found and how it killed my mother. That was all the explanation he needed apparently because he went straight into what procedure I was looking at having done. My initial thought was THANK GOD for another doctor who is on board. I went on to describe how I was interested in having a nipple sparing mastectomy and immediate DIEP flap with possible implants. (I patted myself on the back for all this awesome medical jargon I have picked up :) Without even having to ask, he started to explain each procedure in extended detail.

I will try my best to explain, but I am not a professional! Basically what I am having done is they will make an incision somewhere near my nipple and scrape out all of the breast tissue in both breasts. They will leave my skin and nipple, but core out my nipple as there is a chance of cancer forming in the milk ducts as well. This will all be completed by the breast surgeon who will then turn me over to the plastic surgeon. The option I am still contemplating, is where they lift up my pectoral muscle and insert what is called an expander. Later on the expander can be filled slowly over time to accommodate an implant of the size I want. Next is the DIEP flap procedure. A DIEP flap is where they take a large portion of skin, fat and veins from your lower abdomen. It is similar to the process of having a tummy tuck and will leave me with a scar from hip bone to hip bone. The fat and veins will be taken off the skin and placed in each "hole" where the breast tissue was removed. Dr. Fusi will then attach the vein to a large vein in the middle of my chest so that this tissue/fat has blood supply. After I heal, the expanders will be filled slowly to stretch out the muscle enough and another surgery will take place to put in the permanent implants.

The reason that I chose to do both procedures instead of one or the other is to get as close to that "real" feeling as possible. After describing the surgery he went into time frames. He said the procedures all together are pretty extensive and will take an entire day to complete. I will then spend the night in the ICU and another 4 days in the hospital. After that I will be out of it for a good 10 days. Joey asked him about how much time he would need to take off of work and he suggested a good 3 weeks if not 4. I had heard from some other women about pain from muscle spasms and he said that was from a different procedure and I wont have many issues with the one I chose. I also asked about medication and he said that I will have narcotics, muscle relaxers and antibiotics. Oh joy.

Surprisingly, I am really looking forward to all of this, simply to get it over and done with. I obviously have spent a lot of time thinking about how much pain I'm going to be in, but try hard to not dwell on it. I'm not positive what is going on, but Joey's boat is going through some major testing/training blah blah blah that will require him to be there starting in the February time frame so we have chosen to have this done the first part of January. It isn't a for sure thing that he will get those 3/4 weeks off to care for me and the kids, but I'm really hoping so. The next step is to have a follow up with Dr. Grube my breast surgeon, and a finalizing appointment with Dr. Fusi. Then I will have a medically clearing appointment with X Rays and blood work etc followed by the actual surgery. I'm going to need as much support as possible this next month because I can foresee lots of highs and lows ahead of me. I'm about to have a life changing procedure done that most women don't have to worry about until they are twice my age....