Ta Ta To My Ta Ta’s!!!
And we have a date! January 19th will be my skin sparing prophylactic bilateral mastectomy with direct to implant reconstruction. If for some reason there isn’t great blood flow to the area after all the tissue is removed, the plastic surgeon will have to put in expanders and then I will need another surgery a few months later to swap them out for the implants. I won’t know the outcome until I wake up. It’s just a risk I have to be ok with. I really pray the doctors can do everything in one surgery, though.
I have chosen to get rid of my nipples. After I heal, I will probably have 3D nipples tattooed on but maybe not! We will see how I feel without them, I guess! And then reevaluate.
So the way the surgery works to my best knowledge is alllll the breast tissue and milk ducts and whatever else is in there is removed. The nerves are severed so I will most likely have zero feeling left in my chest. My nipples will be removed. (I will have scars directly across my chest where my nipples once were. I told my plastic surgeon I would like implants the same size as my current breast size or I am ok with slightly smaller. Again, I won’t really know what I will end up with until I wake up!) The breast surgeon leaves a flap of my skin on top and the plastic surgeon creates pockets for the implants to sit in. They use something called AlloDerm, which is basically cadaver tissue that has had all the DNA removed. The AlloDerm creates another layer between my skin and the implant and apparently over time, my own DNA starts taking over the AlloDerm making it really like mine. Science is crazy!
I will have a nerve block placed in my back before surgery and hopefully when I wake up, I won’t have any pain. I think it’s supposed to last about eight hours after surgery?
Once I wake up and everything looks ok and the nurses are able to get me to eat food without barfing, I get to go home. I will be going to my mom’s house for the first week, though. I figure it’s quieter and easier to recover a bit without a two and four year old alllll over me.
I will leave the hospital with four drains, two on each side of my chest. Once my drainage (gross) is less than a certain amount each day, I can have them taken out. I already have an appointment to get the first pair out after one week and the next two will come out two weeks after surgery. I really hope they come out when they plan to take them because I am not looking forward to that part at all! My mom will have to empty the drains for me because I can’t handle that. And when I go back home, she may have to drive over every day to do it because I don’t think Brian can handle it either. #squeamish
The thing that really sucks about having surgery during Covid is that I need to go in alone. No visitors are allowed. Brian will drop me off at the hospital door and I’m sure I will cry terrified tears as I walk in to check in. I am not good with needles and pain so it’s going to be rough having to get an IV and then a nerve block alone. Eeeeek.
And that’s that! I need about six weeks to heal and can’t lift the kids and that’s going to be the hardest part. But after this surgery I will officially be a PREVIVOR and I can’t wait to say that I am.
Love and boobies,
Allison
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