Insane Timeline of Planning a Surgery During a Worldwide Pandemic

March 2020

17th- Breast surgeon #1 consult -CANCELLED due to Covid

May 2020

11th -Breast Surgeon #1 consult-CANCELLED again-she needed to be in surgery

18th-Finally have telehealth visit with breast surgeon #1 (LOVE HER!)

27th- Consult with plastic surgeon #1 (not my fave and she basically tells me I have to keep my nipples)

August 2020

26th-Second appointment with plastic surgeon #1-try to talk her into losing the nipples and she’s not having it. (I thought this was my body and my choice? No?)

September 2020

16th- Consult with plastic surgeon #2-CANCELLED-he needed to be in surgery

October 2020

9th-Consult with plastic surgeon #3 (required by my primary in order to receive referrals for doctors I wanted to meet) -love him

28th-Consult with plastic surgeon #2 finally happens (he refuses to do over the muscle implant reconstruction so he is no longer a contender)

November 2020

13th Virtual consult with breast surgeon #2 who can work with plastic surgeon #3 -love him!

Make the decision to go with plastic #3 and breast surgeon #2-they can work together and surgery will be at Beth Israel. Tell them to book it for January. 

December 2020

Waiting for surgery date….waiting…waiting. Never gets booked. I make a few calls myself since one doctor isn’t getting back to the other doctor and no one can tell me anything. Then finally get a call on 12/21 saying they won’t book now because of surge in Covid. Grrrrr.

Emailed breast surgeon #1 and asked her to speak to plastic #1 to convince her its ok to lose nipples. She does and gets her to agree-yay- but guess what? She is hurt (breast surgeon #1) and doesn’t have clearance from her docs to operate right now. I am getting ready at this point to saw my tits off myself.

Breast surgeon #1 suggests I meet with two new doctors although she doesn’t want to overwhelm me with choices. I trust her opinion and say ok. She gets me appointments super fast. I love her. She’s so sweet. But she still can’t do my surgery.

23rd-meet virtually with breast surgeon #3. Literally waited on my computer for 1 hour and 45 minutes for her to “arrive” but she was worth it. So nice and so smart and so informative. Plus I know someone who had surgery with her last year and knows her on a personal level (they are neighbors) and has nothing but great things to say about her. 

28th-meet with plastic surgeon #4. She agrees to get rid of the nipples. Agrees we can try to do direct to implant (DTI) reconstruction and do over the muscle implants (OTM). She is sweet and funny and down to earth. SCORE!

I have my official team.   Two wonderful female doctors. They work at Newton Wellesley and MGH but surgery will be in Newton. They work together often and speak highly of each other. I am excited about this care team.

So now they need to get approval from the chair of the department to do surgery. Covid is really putting a damper on so much right now. While this surgery is elective, it is also preventative. So there is a chance it may be approved for January. I am praying it is. Fingers and toes (and boobs!) are crossed.

If we don’t get approval now, I wait. But this is the team I feel good about it and I will wait until I am allowed to proceed with them. 

Love and boobies,

Allison

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