Choices, Choices

Gosh, we spend a lot of time in doctors’ offices.  Geez.

So Monday (Jan. 28) I had my last fill at my plastic surgeon’s office in STL! 

Dr. Marissa visited with us for a long time (LOVE HER!!) about all the whats-whys-and hows of the exchange surgery.  Meaning exchanging my tissue expanders for implants.  She got out different implants and helped us (SO much, thankfully) decide which implant to go with. 

I already knew that I wanted silicone implants, based on some survivor friends who had saline implants and were not particularly happy with them, and went back and replaced them with the silicone.  Of course every woman is different; I had already decided on the silicone for me. 

The decision really came down to what style of silicone implant to use.  In years past, there wasn’t many options- basically a round silicone implant with different projections and sizes.  But now with the FDA approval of a cohesive silicone gel implant (also known as a “gummy bear” implant), we had a decision to make. 

I’m tellin’ ya, sitting there in the exam room, in my gown, shopping for boobies was interesting.  I am an upbeat and positive person, and pretty much always look at the bright side of things, but I’d be lying if I didn’t say that while I was sitting there I didn’t have thoughts of how much our lives have changed in the past 4 years.  <sigh>…life used to be so “easy.” 

This easily came to mind and pretty much sums up my life as a breast cancer patient…

Thank You, Lord.

After talking, and talking, and talking with Marissa, we decided on the “gummy bear” implants.  They are nicknamed that, by the way, because their consistency inside is like that of a gummy bear, or a marshmallow.  And as far as shape, we decided to go with the contoured shape; they tend to be more natural looking.  As for profile, it will be a high profile implant because there is no tissue to back up the implant so more profile is needed.  For someone having breast augmentation, the profile is more a decision that will have to be made, for a mastectomy patient like me, it’s pretty much standard to use the high profile implants.   

So after all that, I had my last fill.  It was only 20cc, which brought me to an even 400cc each.  Done!  Yay!!

We scheduled my surgery for Friday, February 15th…two weeks from this Friday.  I can’t wait!!  I am so excited to have my new, SOFT implants!  These tissue expanders haven’t been horrible, but pretty much feel like I have rocks in my chest.  I’m not looking forward to the time off my normal schedule again [Boo!], but it will all be SO worth it. 

After my appointment we had some lunch, went tool shopping for the shop building, and headed home to our kiddos (who were enjoying yet another day off school due to flu and illness).

Ugh, I’m so tired of all this sickness that’s floating around here.  Is it bad where you are?? It’s been awful here.

Talk to you soon!

xoxo