What's going on now? Well lets see.. I started expanding on my left side and got a little ahead of myself on the excitement scale. I finally thought 'Thank sweet baby Jesus, I am over the bumps in the road and there's a light at the end of the tunnel.' Way to get ahead of yourself, Taylor.
Yesterday, as I sat at my computer inputting hundreds of numbers because it's budget season, I noticed my pain quickly increasing on my left side. I work with literally hundreds of physical therapist so I asked two of my favorites for suggestions on how to cope with the pain. They explained to me that it was probably scar tissue and that I needed to just work it slowly and not to over do it. By the time noon rolled around, I had given up on using my left arm at all and by 3:00 I had to throw in the towel. My entire left side was throbbing and every time I moved my left arm it felt like my armpit was literally ripping. Yes, ripping. OUCH.
I came home, threw on my pajamas, grabbed some ice packs, took some pain meds, and jumped into bed for a Grey Anatomy marathon. I thought that after an hour or so, the pain medications would be doing their job and I would probably be pain free and asleep. This of course was the exact opposite of what happened. After 4 hours of icing and two doses of pain medications I took the consistent advice of my grandpa to 'get myself a nice hot shower' and then get back into bed. That's my grandpa's go to 'well get yourself a nice hot shower and go to bed' and usually, it works!
As I went to get into the shower, I brushed my left side to notice that my normally hard expander felt like a bag of air under my skin. I also noticed that I had extreme redness all around my nipple area, and it looked like I had a golf ball under my skin. Did you freak out? Are you kidding me? Of course I freaked out. I tried to calm myself down and push through my shower but by the time I got out I was half way into a panic attack.
I pulled myself together... kind of... and waited for my mom to get home to verify the change in my appearance for me before I contacted my doctor. Long story short, I am now on antibiotics for the next 7 days and if these antibiotics don't help I will be admitted into the hospital next Tuesday for an infection.
An infection? How does that happen? Basically, anything out of the norm that enters my body is attracted to these expanders since they're foreign objects and the likeliness of infection is more common than I thought.
There's a chance it could not be an infection and the expander could have a leak. The good thing about the leak is that it's just a saline solution in my expanders, so it doesn't hurt me if it leaks into my body. It could also be my body rejecting the expanders all together. I am now in a waiting game to see what happens.
In the mean time, my expanding process has been put on pause until whatever this is goes away. If it is an infection, they will have to try to save the expander and I will have to wait at least 6 months to start the expanding process back up again. And I thought a month with one boob was bad. Ha.
I am not going to lie... this totally sucks but you know what? I will take this process over battling cancer any day. When this is all said and done, I will have a long, healthy life to enjoy these very expensive cancer-free boobs that I have been patiently waiting for...
On the lighter side of things, remember when I told you one of my best friends was getting married and I had to sit on the side lines because of this process? Well that beautiful event was this past Friday. Look how gorgeous it turned out...
I am so blessed to have Mr. and Mrs.Beason as two my of best friends and neighbors. I wish you both all the love and happiness in the universe. Love you guys so much!
The other great news, I finally got a medical bill for my mastectomy. It's good news that you got a giant medical bill? Well, no... but I am incredibly blessed because my insurance company is standing behind me in this process and I owe zero dollars. I know some insurance companies don't pay for this surgery yet, so I am very fortunate to have one of the companies that does.
As I continue down this bumpy road, I hope that I continue to encourage people to get tested for the BRCA gene mutation. I am an example of probably everything that could go wrong in this process which may scare you a little, but as bumpy as my road as been, it will never be as bumpy as the road of someone battling cancer. It is hard, exhausting, mentally draining, and painful, but it is worth it. Take the plunge and go get tested because knowledge is power.
I never really payed much attention to the BRCA testing. Until I was diagnosed with breast cancer. And then a thousand what if's went through my mind. It wouldn't have mattered if I had been tested, because I wasn't positive, but I totally salute your decision to do this. Having spent the last 10 months of my life, battling breast cancer, trust me, you made the right choice. Even though right now there are some storm clouds, you did the right thing. I am living in expander hell right along with you, except my expanders have been radiated, which trust me is living hell! Hang in there!
ReplyDeleteI was just thinking of you and wanted to check in with how you were doing. You are still an inspiration to me as I continue to consider the surgery for myself. I know it is challenging to find the desire to blog sometimes. We all can wait for you. What I appreciate the most is your realness, honesty, and openness....the good, bad, and ugly. Good bless and I hope things look up for you soon.
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