Silicone Surgeon Appointment

Wow, my blog is quickly turning into a breast cancer journal. Sorry. But I guess that's all that's going on lately.  At least, it's all I think about now.

Keith took the day off and we went to see the plastic surgeon in San Diego. I was kind of surprised that he took the day off to come with me. I want him to use his days off when I have surgery; I'll need him afterward too! When I had Libby, he only got three days off and that wasn't nearly enough!  But I was really glad he came with me because I'm so overwhelmed with this that I'm not able to retain a lot of information when it all comes at me so fast. My brain has been stunned. He is a great listener and he asks the questions I can only think of later.

I woke up with a migraine and battled it all day long. I was having a very rough time of it too. I was nauseous and everything. It was painful and yucky! What a day for a doctor appointment when I want to be able to think clearly, I cannot.

We had to take two cars because Keith teaches in San Diego in the evening, so I would either have to hang out until he was done with his class or come home. I really wanted to come home after the appointment with that headache and relieve the babysitter too. Although, I didn't want to drive!

We met in front of the building where Keith teaches and then he hopped in with me. He didn't want to though because my car stinks. We can't locate the stink or get rid of it! Ack! It smells like something died in the air intake. Nice, huh?

When I drive and he is the passenger, I'm nervous! As if I wasn't nervous enough already, geez. I had to park in downtown San Diego with a migraine, and a passenger who puts me on edge. ugh. I managed to do it though and he said, "Are you always this nervous when you drive?"  I said,  "No. Well, sort of, maybe close, but not really. You make me more nervous!"  Plus, we were going to the doctor. I'm amazed that I got us there.

The doctor's office was above the iHop restaurant. Isn't that odd? For some reason, I really find that funny! We entered through a little door on the street and went up above the iHop to the clinic.

The doctor and nurse were very nice. We talked about the reconstruction phase of the surgery and the doctor showed us the two types of implants used these days. We decided on the teardrop gummy bear implants. The other choice was the round saline filled implants. The reason I decided on the teardrop gummy bears was 1. they can be place in right away, 2. the shelf life of 20 years and 3. the shape.  Maybe the other kind can be placed in right away too, I don't know, but the doctor can place these implants in during the mastectomy surgery so I won't have to have a separate reconstruction surgery.

The option I did not choose was to have expanders put in. If I get expanders put in, then I'd have to get them filled every few weeks with more saline. They stretch the muscle and skin and prepare your body for the implants. Six months after the expanders are placed in, a surgery to swap the expanders for implants is done. I'm not going to get injections in my boobs to fill them every few weeks and I'm not going to have a second surgery. That's just not going to happen. If I don't get the implants right away then I'm not getting any.

To alleviate the stretching issue, he will sew in a mesh sling to hold up the implants and make a pocket for them. They go under the chest muscle. He said the stretching might be more painful than if I had the expanders. I thought, oh hell, I had engorgement when I nursed. It's probably just as painful as that! And I did that four times now. With engorgement you wake up one morning and bam, watermelon size boobs. And they hurt! As long as they aren't as huge as watermelons, I think I'll do ok. Plus, they'll give me pain meds.

He kept telling me he would put in the biggest he had, the biggest he could get in, he would use a big set, big, big, big...  I told him I don't want to be big, just average, medium, not a  Friday Night set. I can't believe I said "Friday Night set" to the doctor! My husband was turning red and squirming. Poor guy. Anyway, we decided on a C, which is nice and average.

Then I had to be examined, measured and photographed.  Ok, let me just say, that was weird!

After the appointment, Keith and I went out for lunch. He had a specific place in mind and when we pulled up in front of it, I said, "Dance Hall and Saloon? Really?"  Oops.  We decided to have lunch at BJ's instead. Home of the Pazookie. We didn't have a pazookie, but our lunch was very good. I needed to eat. My headache wasn't any better yet.

It was nice to have lunch with my husband for once. We were able to discuss the surgery, the cancer, the recovery, the impact on our family, the future, the past, just everything.  Except for when our food was placed in front of us, then we went silent and just ate like we always do. Then we laughed because Keith quoted something his friend said to us once when we did this, "Shhh. The Schumachers are eating."