back from the hospital …again

essentials

Originally uploaded by l@in.
As you may or may not have known, I had surgery again yesterday. This time I did a really bad job of communicating to people what was going on, so if I’ve left you out of the loop, I apologize now. Work has been incredibly busy, however well it’s going, but I’ve also logged close to 50 hrs. a week or more for the last 6 weeks or so. I know that’s normal for some people, and if it is, my hat is off to you. This kind of schedule left me exhausted and feeling as if I had little time to myself, which sucked especially right before surgery.

Anyway, yesterday morning I had a prophylactic, simple mastectomy on my left breast and a tissue expander was placed, just like the last time. Since there is no known cancer in this breast, a sentinel node biopsy wasn’t done. I think this combined with better pain and nausea management left me feeling much better after the surgery and with a far greater range of mobility. Pete and Mark actually came to visit last night at the hospital, which gave Joanna a nice chance at a break from napping on an uncomfortable looking chair in my room, and they were treated to a puke-less evening, which was unexpected.

Making the decision to have a prophylactic mastectomy wasn’t an easy one, and may seem a bit draconian. Getting diagnosed with even low-grade breast cancer at 28, genuinely freaked me out. Especially considering that I had related symptoms at 26. Receiving negative results from my genetic BRCA1 & 2 testing made me more nervous than anything. It meant that I probably wouldn’t need to make any drastic decisions about removing my ovaries, but it did leave me with no reason whatsoever as to why I had breast cancer at such a young age. It made sense to me to try an lower my risk as much as possible, and a mastectomy on the seemingly healthy breast accomplished that. There was actually an interesting article in the NY Times about this process last Sunday.

So now I’m home, and anticipating a whole foods run for dinner tonight. I’m actually feeling pretty good, and considering how I felt last time, I’m surprised by how functional I am.

In other news, it’s been a big week as I turned 30 on Wednesday – eek. Thanks for coming out to the party at Be Bar, and for all the gifts and good wishes. And a special thanks to Allison who trekked all the way in from Chicago for the weekend. It was a real treat having her in town. Among other things, Joanna gave me seasons 3 & 4 of Sex in the City. I bet they’ll be close to finished before the weekend is out… off to it!