Surgery No. 6 — she’s come this far

Jenny and I are in Houston for another surgery. If you missed her pre-surgery post, you can read it here.

This surgery should be the last time they need to open her up. We hope we are done with No. 6. With this surgery, they are swapping out the expander they had in place after the surgery in Feb. They are also doing fat grafting on each side to complete the process and make sure the implants are surrounded by tissue.

We think this is the last surgery, but the doctors say they often will do more fat grafting in months/years to come as everything settles into place. They call it serial grafting. It’s a thing. All that is up to Jenny.

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Hiatus from cancer stuff

So, I guess it is pretty obvious that I took a hiatus from thinking about cancer.

I didn’t blog. I started working out – running and lifting weights. I’ve been REALLY busy at work. We went on vacation. Basically, I’m trying to find my new normal since my most recent “new normal” was two years of waiting for the next cancer milestone — surgery, chemo, radiation, reconstruction, etc. It is weird to not have the next scary thing looming.

A couple cancer-related things have happened in the few months that have gone by:

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Ultrasound results: Good news!

We made our way down to Houston (taking a whole new route through Waco, I might add) yesterday. We started the morning off early at MD Anderson by getting an ultrasound on the infamous lump.

Ultrasound showed that I have a mixture of fat and scar tissue that are forming the big lump. According to the doctor, “We are comfortable with the look and have no concerns.”

Music to our ears.

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Recon Recovery Week 5: Quick update

As suspected, my doctor would like me to get imaging done of the lump under my arm. Alan and I are headed to Houston in the morning for Tuesday appointments. If it is nothing, I will know quickly. If it is something they want to biopsy, I imagine it will take a day or two to get the results.

I’ll keep everyone posted.

PS: I still have one stupid drain and it just won’t slow down. Boo.