Trip of a lifetime

We are now back after a very memorable holiday with the family.

The kids each have different highlights. I know one of mine was the first photo of the sunrise as we reached California, marking the beginning of our holiday and putting behind the year that was.



My highlights were:
- shopping in Las Vegas
- Titanic exhibition at the Luxor casino, Las Vegas
- the spectacle of Las Vegas
- showing the kids New York, turtle pond in Central Park, the look on Andres face at the museum of natural history dinosaur floor, the look on Jana's face at The American Girl shop
- Disneyworld - hanging at the resort, Magic Kingdom mic key's boo to you Halloween party and trick or treating, Epcot's Soaring ride and aquarium
- Hollywood studios,
- universal studios Harry Potter, using the hermiones wand around Diagonal Alley
- Kennedy space centre
- loved San Francisco, wished we'd stayed there longer, loved our apartment in Nob Hill, The Wharf precinct, cable car ride,



Now we are back to reality, me with the flu and visiting specialists to finalise the surgery on the 14th October.

My seroma on my butt behaved on the holiday and wasnt any trouble. I only started to feel it wobble toward the end of each day. My Plastic Surgeon thinks it has reduced in size, but my physio doesnt think so. She has probably worked with it more than my P.S anyway. He just doesnt want to go back to surgery to fix it and hopes that I will just put up with it. I told him I'd decide after the left side is completed.

My visit to the plastic surgeon meant he squeezed my remaining butt to guestimate a size for filling the breast after mastectomy. He asked if I wanted to keep my remaining nipple, it would mean another surgery prior to next Friday to try and save and re-direct the nerve endings and blood vessels to reduce the chance of it dying once the mammary tissue is removed. I figure it's just another chance for a complication for possibly little sensation left anyway. So just take it away and we'll reconstruct them later. At least they will look the same as each other. So we are all set. He mentioned that he might have to take a vein from my arm, but wont know until he's in there. He thinks it will be 6-8 hours and reminded me of why he has nightmares about this operation - nice!

We talked a little about how I would choose the colour of my nipples - ha, ha, he made it sound like a shopping experience. Using a medical tattooist means the ink only lasts a couple of years and needs touch ups. Otherwise you use a commercial tattooist who uses the commercial ink which is not really recommended on a body part that has had cancer cells. I thought I could have a 3D tattoo that some commercial tattoo parlours are doing with their artist skills, but then I read about the risks of cancer due to the ink and that is why I'm now re-thinking the nipple reconstruction with the medical tattooed aeola. That's why it fades as it is not as permanent, and I'd be left with nothing, but if there's a nipple constructed, I'd feel a little bit more normal if I catch myself in the mirror.

I also saw my Breast Surgeon. She will be performing a procedure the day before by injecting radioactive dye into me. My blood will turn blue and my skin will look ashen. This will be used during her part of the mastectomy by using the mammary tissue it will tell her which order the lymph nodes go in and she will remove at least 1 node if not 4 nodes. If they turn bright blue they have cancer cells. Although she is expecting that there will be no cancer cells based on my complete pathological response that I got from treatment. Even still, the breast contents will be sent to pathology for testing and I should know the results by Monday/Tuesday the following week. So crossing fingers and toes that it's all clear.

A visit with the Oncology Gyno was in order to help me out with the menopause symptoms that are making my life as a woman somewhat challenging. Her answer was some eostrogen cream. Now why would I want to put estrogen back in my body when we've spent so much time trying to remove it?? This is a good question. My cancer was estrogen positive, meaning that it feeds off the estrogen hormone. I am taking Tamoxifen to block the estrogen receptors in my body. Apparently this cream is only enough to improve the bladder and womanly bits from drying out but the Tamoxifen will do its' job so the cancer doesnt start up again. It sounds risky but improves lifestyle. I figure I'll try it out for a bit at least.

So now the countdown to Surgery day - can say I'm a little nervous about it.