Anna 2.0 - Post 1

It's been 4 weeks since my surgery. 4 weeks that have seemed very very long and at the same time, very very short. It's been rather rollercoaster-ish, lots of ups and downs, but overall, I am pretty darn happy with how I'm doing right now.

So, since mostly this blog is written as a journal to myself and my kids, here's a little background on why I had surgery and what kind I had and all that. Y'all can skip over this if you want to since I've been blathering on about it for the past year or so.

I have a huge family history of breast cancer. Like huge-huge. On my mom's side. My mom and aunt and grandma all died from breast cancer and other family members have had it as well. So a few years ago, my sister Charlotte got tested for a gene mutation that has been linked to breast cancer. She was positive for BRCA2. She opted to have a prophylactic (preventative) bilateral (both sides) mastectomy (breast surgery). Only it didn't turn out to be prophylactic. They found a lump while going through her tissue after surgery. She wasn't any older than I am now. Kristin and Alison also tested positive and decided on courses of treatment.

I tested positive too. It was a few months before Kate turned 1. We knew we wanted to have another baby, so my oncologist said that we'd better hurry up. With Megan and Jared it took about 6 months before we got pregnant, and with Kate it took more than 3 years. We didn't know what to expect, but I guess Heavenly Father really wanted William in our family because it took exactly 3 weeks from the day we started trying for us to get pregnant with him. He was born in February, and we scheduled surgery for July. We wanted to do it the same year for several reasons. Financially, it made sense since we had already met our insurance out of pocket max for the year. Physically it made sense because of the type of reconstruction I wanted (more about that later). And that seemed like the perfect window for the baby - we hoped he would be sleeping through the night but not yet mobile (that worked out exactly right).

My OB (who I love - she's wonderful and has been a great support through all of this) recommended both my oncologist, Dr. Hsu (pronounced "shoe") and my breast surgeon, Dr. Lee. Dr. Hsu is a little tiny, soft spoken man who really knows what he's talking about when it comes to cancer research and BRCA and has no idea why I wanted so badly to have a fourth child. But I like him anyway. Even if I do feel like I flabbergast him sometimes.

Dr. Lee is wonderful. She DOES understand where I'm coming from and I have enjoyed working with her the most.

Dr. Lee recommended a plastic surgeon, Dr. Hsu. (yes, both my oncologist and plastic surgeon have the same last name. That's where the similarities end.) He has been great to work with as well. All three doctors felt like I was a good candidate for DIEP flap reconstruction, so that's the route we took rather than doing the more traditional implants. In DIEP flap reconstruction, basically they take your excess tissue from your stomach and use it to reconstruct the breasts. Since I had a baby a few months ago (plus 3 previous pregnancies ;) ), I had plenty of tissue to work with.And basically you get a tummy tuck when they remove all the belly tissue.

So that was the plan. DIEP flap reconstruction, scheduled for July 15. A week in the hospital after surgery, 6 weeks of recovery, and then later a surgery to do the nipple reconstruction.

That was the plan.