Surgery Check-In

Today we met with the doctor doing my mastectomy, Dr. Santamaria, and the doctor doing my lymph node reconstructions, Dr. Figy. We had previously met Dr. Santamaria when I was first diagnosed and looking for second opinions. He examined me then and examined me now; he said it was a night and day difference in size! That’s really exciting and means that the cancer is responding to treatment! He said we should be able to have my ovaries removed at the same time, which is also so exciting because I just want to get it all done!

Next we met with Dr. Figy for the first time. It was love at first sight. It was like hanging out with a friend. He explained I am a candidate for lymph node reconstruction which can take place with the mastectomy and oophorectomy. He will take a vein from my arm and turn it into a lymph node. It will take my risk of lymphedema down from 40% to 4%. You all know that’s my biggest fear with this cancer, so I’m super jazzed about the risk reduction. 

We also talked reconstruction options. I had been so nervous about reconstruction. There are actually a ton of options when it comes to reconstruction and it’s a very long process. I’m pretty lucky though, because in a sea of choices I have only one option. This is because I’m having radiation. Radiation will fry the skin and tissue under it, making it really difficult to do traditional reconstruction with implants. 

The option I do have is a DIEP procedure.  This is when fat is used from another part of the body to create breasts. Dr. Figy would use fat from my stomach and I’m good with that! This will give me the most natural look with the least amount of potential adverse reactions. Here I thought I would never do reconstruction and now I’m super jazzed on it! Hot girl summer 2022!!!!

Got a timeline as well. I have 12 more weeks of chemo, beginning on May 13. I will be doing a chemo called taxol. This regimen will take me to late July, when I have to wait 4–6 weeks to let my body heal and prepare for surgery. This takes me to the first week in September; it looks like I’ll have surgery the week of September 6. After surgery, I get to wait another 4–6 weeks before I can have radiation, which also takes 4 weeks. This gets us to the end of the year. I have to heal from radiation for at least 3 months (which puts us at March 2022), but Figy said June for reconstruction; so I may have misheard how long my body has to heal from everything before reconstruction, but it makes no difference. I have a timeline. I have some badass and super cool surgeons that I click with and trust. It was a great news day again, warriors!!! Let’s keep this trend going!