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How I spent my Monday afternoon (aka, plastic surgery and mastectomy scars)

mastectomy plastic surgery

Most of you have probably never seen a mastectomy scar. And you’re not fully seeing them now, as these are bandaged. I am also wearing a compression sleeve for lymphedema (my left arm).

Although almost half of mastectomies do not involve reconstruction, it turns out that too many of these surgeries do not leave the woman “flat.” It’s highly unlikely that the scars will be “flat” if the patient isn’t savvy enough to use that word pre-op. I didn’t know.

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I cannot properly express how great this feels!

compression sleeve

This is a testament to spring microsurgery and daily use of my FlexiTouch pump: the sleeve on top is my new one. It looks smaller in real life. So much so that when I took it out of the package on Monday, I blurted out an adult word! But it fits great!!

Fingers crossed for additional surgery in the spring!

Take that, lymphedema!

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Cancer, the gift that keeps on giving: LVA and LNT on deck

UW pre-op

At UW Medical Center pre-op center with the awesome heated air blanket! This is what is on tap for me later today if all goes well.

“In the first procedure, called lymphovenous bypass, surgeons peer through a microscope and use minute instruments to connect blocked lymphatic vessels as small as 0.3 millimeters in diameter to a nearby vein. The bypass allows excess lymph fluid to flow more freely.

“In the second procedure, called lymph node transfer, surgeons microsurgically transplant healthy lymph nodes that have a rich blood supply to an area of lymphatic injury to re-establish lymphatic connections.”

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First year anniversary, mastectomy

anniversary

Yesterday, August 30, was the first year mastectomy anniversary, and I expected it to be a difficult day, like the lumpectomy anniversary was.

But it was kind of a non-event.

I joked about it to my PT (we had our surgeries the same day with the same surgeon) at 11 and had two afternoon meetings. I came home, did some SOS web stuff for work, ran errands.

But I didn’t sleep well.

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