The Tail of Two Boobs

Once upon a time I had two boobs. Just like other women. Then cancer took one away from me.

I continue to fight back only now it's time to fight back against the one boobed monster.

Okay, that was all just plain cheesey.

I went to see the new plastic surgeon about reconstruction today. If you'll recall, I've already been to see one and it didn't go well.

I got into his office 10 minutes before my appointment. It was clean, it smelled nice and was very tastefully decorated (he had some artwork on his wall, besides the painting above my fireplace that I LOVE, I've never seen another piece of art that spoke to me...I loved these pictures.)

When I got in there was another woman in the waiting room. She went in about 2 minutes later. Not a minute after that another woman came in. She spoke with the receptionist only to discover that she was 2 hours early for her appointment (though she was 15 minutes late for the time she thought she had...yeah.)  The receptionist said to her, "well, you've only got a follow up, you'll be quick. You can stay."  Then she puts me on the spot by asking if the woman can go in front of me since she' going to be really fast.

What am I going to say, no? Of course not. I'm not a bitch. So I said sure. Then the receptionist says to this other lady - "great, he's just got someone in for a consult so you'll be about a half an hour before you go in."

WHOA!!! No one told me I'm already waiting 30 minutes!!!

So, now I'm not as impressed. I mean, this guy is running 30 minutes behind and now I have to wait even longer because this ditz can't tell time?? Shit.

And to add insult to injury, this guy didn't even have good magazines in his waiting room. (though it makes sense that a cosmetic surgeon has fashion magazines in his office...I'm sure many of his clients are botox kind of folks.....)

When I finally got in, I was unmoved. He was quiet, monotone and didn't seem warm. But I think he was just nervous because he loosened up along the way.

He gave me the options that I'm good for; TRAM flap surgery - in which they take muscle and tissue from your stomach to reconstruct the breast, Latissimus Dorsi flap surgery, in which they take muscle and tissue from the back - combined with an expander and implant and Skin and Tummy Fat Microsurgery which I'm also a candidate for but it's only done by a couple of Dr's here so I'd be waiting upwards of 2 years for that surgery.

He laid out the facts, the pros and cons, the recovery time (which was a huge factor in my decision) and answered all of my questions thoroughly and patiently. In short, he was fantastic!!

So, I've decided to have the Latissimus Dorsi flap surgery. The recovery time is less for that, and while it's two surgeries (one to move the muscle and one to put the implant in) the recovery for it will be shorter and easier and the results are just as good. And if, for some reason it fails (there is always the risk of failure) I can still have the TRAM flap surgery.

Initially I was going to do it in March so I could piggy back it with March Break but I'm still going to have to go to the Dr weekly to have the expander filled with saline so I've postponed it until the summer after get back from Florida. That was I can take the rest of the summer to deal with it and only miss a bit of work to have the implant put in.

I'm ridiculously excited. This time next year...I'll have TWO boobs.

I can't wait!!!