TC+Rugrats: Recap

So I revisited the blog today, only to realize that I haven't posted in way over a year. I skipped all of radiation and reconstruction. Today's post might be lengthy since it seems I'm only blogging about once a year. (I really need to change that.) To help keep all of the dates straight, I'm recapping milestone events on this timeline.

3.31.12 Diagnosis-Stage 2A breast cancer (IDC)

4.7.12 Lumpectomy and Sentinel Lymph Node Dissection

4.20.12 Lumpectomy (DCIS removal) and Axillary Lymph Node Dissection

4.26.12 BRCA-1 diagnosis

5.25.12 Port Surgery

5.31.12 Dose dense Adriamycin/Cytoxan Chemo x 4

8.3.12 Taxol Chemo x 10

1.18.13 Double mastectomy

3.7.13 Radiation x 28

7.19.13 Implant exchange surgery

9.9.13 Second implant exchange surgery due to capsular contracture

6.3.14 Hysterectomy

8.6.14 Infection-5 day hospital stay

9.5.14 Implant removal

That about sums it up. Radiation was a boring, daily chore. The treatment itself wasn't painful. But in the end, my skin was extremely burned, irritated, and the cause of many future reconstructive problems.

My first exchange surgery from expanders to implants was unsuccessful. The capsular contracture set in too quickly, so I had to exchange those implants for form stable (gummy bear) implants.

All was good until I came down with flu like symptoms and had to be hospitalized for 5 long days back in August. The doctors couldn't figure out what was wrong with me. Thank goodness they ruled out necrotizing fasciitis. Not only did I have a consistently high fever, my blood pressure was low and my heart rate was high. My left breast was red and painful to the touch. I was on the strongest antibiotic, and my symptoms still did not improve. The antibiotic was switched due to an allergic reaction, and I was finally released with a PICC line to administer Daptomycin for 10 days. The decision to remove my implants was finally made when my plastic surgeon realized that I wasn't improving. The infectious disease doctor had been pushing for surgery all along. So you're telling me that we could have gotten this done and over with when I was in the hospital?!?! I had to suffer through pain and stress for a whole month?

The implant removal surgery went well. I was stuck with those horrible drains again. Seriously? Like I hadn't already been through enough, one of the drains caused my skin to form huge, painful blisters.

Almost 8 weeks out of surgery, and life has resumed itself. My new normal is trying to figure out how to look good in clothes, so it's not obviously clear that I am completely flat chested.

Even with all the surgeries and recoveries, our little family has been able to squeeze in some quality family time these past few months. We visited Seattle in May, stayed at a beautiful Park Hyatt for my birthday, went camping at Barton Flats, traveled to Mammoth, and played at Legoland!

Now that my list of cancer related events is getting shorter, I can get this blog back to it's original roots- documenting and preserving memorable moments with my two little rugrats.