I’m back. My third and hopefully final surgery is done. Now I’m in the aftermath of numerous doctor follow up visits. Some are related to my surgery, and some are just because it’s been over a full year since this shitstorm of a cancer diagnosis started.

It’s been about 4 1/2 weeks since my reconstruction surgery. I’m feeling much better, but not sure on the results. When I saw the plastic surgeon two weeks ago, he assured me things would “even out” a little bit. Well, right now I’m not seeing that. One side looks like half a grapefruit was shoved under my skin, and the other side looks slightly bigger, but gravity took hold and is weighing it down. Thank goodness for sports bras. I’m not going to complain though, because some people can’t even get reconstructed. I’ll take what I can get. This is my new normal. It’s fine. It’s not like my full-time job is to be a Victoria’s Secret model. I’ll be okay.

Also, I don’t ever recommend liposuction. They did fat grafting from my thighs and stomach to try to make my chest look more “natural”. Well, liposuction healing is apparently no joke. In the first couple weeks afterward, I looked like a domestic violence victim with glued up puncture wounds. I’m astonished that people sign up for this just to remove fat and not to correct some other problem. I’d much rather diet and work out than have to heal from puncture wounds and bruising like that ever again. Ick.

My mom was supposed to take me to surgery, but she caught the flu. My dad didn’t hesitate to take me to the hospital that morning. Surgery was about 3 1/2 hours. Started about 8 am, and I was done a little before Noon. My stepmom graciously brough me home by 3 pm. The next day, my dad got the flu. My daughter had bronchitis, and my son was on antibiotics for strep throat. I was surrounded by sickness! I have no idea how I made it to surgery and after surgery without getting sick, but the Holy Spirit protected me from all the germs.

The scheduling of my surgery, and what was going on around me, was amazingly…timely. My surgery was on a Wednesday. My kids’ school was cancelled the next day, Thursday, because of bad weather. Then they were off a long weekend Friday – Monday. This gave them time to get healthy. School was then cancelled again on Tuesday and Wednesday. This was amazing because I couldn’t get my son to school. My dad would’ve been the one to help me transport my son, but he was down and out with the flu himself. I’m not sure what I would’ve done to get my son to school if it hadn’t been cancelled due to weather.

I took pain medication for about 5 days. It was a rough first week. I switched to Tylenol and Advil after the first week because pain medication was starting to give me headaches. My kids helped me with anything heavy, like taking out the trash, hauling laundry baskets, etc. Other than that, I took care of myself. My parents called to check on me, but there wasn’t much they could do since they were both sick. Somehow, I was able to drop my son off at school by the time he did actually have to go back. It was a rough 2nd week as well, but at least I was off pain meds and knew I could drive if I had to.

After a full week, I realized I couldn’t concentrate on working, even if I was at home. I was too uncomfortable. I opted to be out for a full week and a half. I took two more days plus the weekend to continue healing. By the last week of January, I was able to log into my computer, start getting organized and interact with my work team again. I thought it would be a chill slow week at home. Not so much. I caught a big error by one of my employees while working at home. This was good, because it had to be addressed. But bad because it set off a domino effect of other issues. My first week working, while at home, was horrible. It was stress after stress. The following week (my first week back in the office) was just as stressful.

Today is the first day I’ve been able to do uninterrupted work for minutes and hours at a time.

All of the sudden we’re a month out from my surgery. It’s been a whirlwind of a month. I’m blessed that I have the family and job that I have. I’m blessed that I’ve made it through to the other side of yet another surgery. Now we go into maintenance mode. As soon as I get cleared from the plastic surgeon next week, I start physical therapy. All of this healing and sitting has made the tendons in my one arm stiff and it’s difficult to reach upward. After physical therapy, I want to keep it going. I plan to start on a slow but sure workout and healthy eating lifestyle… with occasional treats in between. My goal is not to lose weight, but to get stronger. I lost a lot of muscle this past year, and I want it back, plus some. I gained a lot of mental, emotional, and spiritual strength this year, and now I want to re-strengthen my physical body.

Stifle Me Not