DIEP 2013

Nihahi...i tried to send a pm but it won't let me for some reason. What in the heck is causing the whole body aches? Don't want to be a fear monger, but I can't ignore my worry. Please don't discount the possibility of some other cause. Were you exposed to the flu, that you know of....or worse? Menengitis? The neck pain is concerning to me. It would be easy to misclassify symptoms of something else immediately following surgery. 

No hugs right now....just prayers.

Yes, nihani, check out your symptoms with your doctor. Stage 2 shouldn't be the cause of your symptoms. Better safe than sorry.  

Getting caught up again...  

Michele your spirit is remarkable!  Just like all the rest of the gang, I am praying for you.

Nihahi, I feel like I gave you bad information on stage II.  I didn't have any of that muscle ache, just the sore throat.  Sorry that anesthesia does that to you.  It does my mom and my sister.

Goldie, that is a really cute movie.  I helped hang a Frozen poster in my grand daughter's bedroom last night.

Deb, I hope your attorney can help you get some of what you have coming.

Jeannie, you are sounding much more positive, just like your smiling picture!

RHG, I didn't have any tummy revision during stage II.  I'm hoping to donate some of it for fat grafting during the next year.  I didn't know what to expect either and was a little disappointed that the abdomen didn't go with the belly fat.  When they said they took out a football shaped section that was exactly what they did, and stitched it together.  I need to work on it myself, too!  Sharecare had some tips on belly fat today.  I guess I will be adding apple cider vinegar and green tea to my daily diet.  Sooner or later I'm going to be too full of good things to find room for all the bad things I'm currently eating. 

http://www.sharecare.com/health/weight-loss/articl...

We have grand kids and birthday parties this weekend.  A week from today, Florida, here we come!  Cherry, where will you be in Florida?

Have a good weekend my friends. ...Julie

Thank you ladies, all for your kind words of support!  I really need the encouragement right now, feel like I am living on a different planet right now and this isnt happening to me again.  I guess it will take awhile for me to come out of the shock and put my REALLY big boxing gloves to nail this sucker against the wall for good!  

So many of you have sent me private messages, I am in awe of your thoughtfulness...thank you!

Hope everyone has a good weekend, I will be back to respond more once I get my feet planted back on this earth.

Michele

Nihahi...I always like Epsom salt baths for all over muscle pain. You probably can't soak in a tub, but maybe soak hand towels in epsom salted water and put the compresses wear you hurt.

Stage 1 surgery in NOLA done!  

Just now getting on the computer. Surgery went well (NOLA) and I'm very pleased I had it done here. I'm having less pain than I did with my mastectomy.  Not much pain in the surgical sites unless I get up and move around.  My biggest gripe is the nausea all the pain meds seem to give me. I had surgery Wednesday and should get a shower today. Dr. Sullivan did a bilateral DIEP from tummy, Dr. Stolier did the right side mastectomy. The facilities here are lovely. I've finally figured out a way to get in and out of the bed on my own. They'll let me out of here either tomorrow or Monday.  So far I've not needed much of anything beyond my toothbrush and toothpaste, of course I overpacked but am glad I brought the laptop and Kindle.

Congrats Kelley! Rest and recover!

I've read that some people get neck injuries from positioning on the table. I sure hope that is not the case for nihahi! Hope you are feeling better by now! 

thanks bluebird....I'm sure I've been dealing with something called post anesthesia myalgia. Stage 2 wise....I couldn't be happier, and in very very little discomfort. You'll do great in yours....surely you have gotten over all the potholes this journey can toss at you!

It's SATURDAY!  Bike ride this morning, Aubrey is coming over all afternoon!  

Nihahi, what a miserable experience.  I hope each day brings more calming of the muscle aches.  

Curly, like Goldie, you're in my thoughts a lot throughout the day, and you're in my prayers.  And you're right--put on those boxing gloves and flatten BC--this time it'll stay flat!

I have to remember it's only been a month since my Stage II surgery in December.  I was lifting chairs yesterday and thought "ouch..."  No more of that for a while.

Happy weekend everyone! (Maggie Smith's character, on Downton Abbey, "What is a weekend?")

I can say that cancer lets you know who is truly a friend. My friend from high school has pretty much dropped off the face of the earth since my diagnosis. I just texted her to see how she was and she is upset because I didn't respond to a text she sent me on the 30th if December. That was my first infusion day. And yes she knew about it. Her father in law just passed from cancer and so she knows about it. She also told me she didn't understand what the big deal was since I had surgery the cancer was gone.  Ugh. Just really hurt...

RHGSR, so sorry about your friend! The value of these boards is we KNOW. Those without breast cancer just don't get it. That doesn't excuse the hurt she caused you, though. You certainly don't need negative energy in your life. It doesn't seem fair that with all we lose with bc, friendships are sometimes lost, too. I hope she puts the effort into trying to understand a little, at least, of what you're going through. We do! My best friends said the most hurtful things to me but at least I know they were well-intentioned.

kelleyb, congrats on getting through surgery so well! Take it easy over the weekend... the hard part is after you get home and really start healing. Impressive that you are already getting in and out of bed so well!

RHGSR - wow, what an amazing background you have, nursing + now a degree in sociology. Don't know how it is where you are, but nurses are in great demand where I am. Sorry to hear about your "friend;" that is infuriating. Yes, cancer does reveal who in life we can really count on, doesn't it...

My boobs are shrinking... I'm officially down a cup size. I'm grateful that as I have lost weight, my breasts have lost weight symmetrically. Did not really want them to get smaller but unfortunately we don't get to pick where the weight comes off, do we. Glad I have not bought many bras yet, and the ones I have are stretchy. Has anyone found any pretty underwires that aren't painful, does this eventually get easier as we heal? I tried a few on today and they weren't as bad as when I last tried underwires on, but it still felt weird. Or at least I'd like to find some bras that aren't underwire, but don't come up as high. Seems like everything I have tries to peek out of the top of my dresses.

RHG, I had similar situation not to long after my dx and bmx.  Lost a 20 year friendship because of it.  I am really sorry.  It hurts, but now you know what kind of person she is, and I hope nothing bad ever happens to her because she is going to be going it alone.  We are here for you, and I know that you have people outside of this site that are there for you, too.  Who knows, she might think about what she said, and realize what an ass she was, and apologize. 

christina....thanks for the first chuckle I've had in a couple days, though maybe you didn't mean to be humourous....exactly "what" is trying to peek out of the top of your dresses??? boobs or bras????

Emotionally, this whole "thing" is quite a mixed bag.....It is crazy how some people we expected to be understanding and supportive, turn out to be anything but. Sometimes it makes me angry, more often, it makes me sad. Sometimes, I wonder if it isn't more a combination of their "uncertainty or foundering", combined with my increased sensitivity to my "circumstances". I would like to think that having been on the receiving end of hurtful or insensitive comments by others, would make me more "tuned in" to the fact that everyone has "issues and struggles"....but, I'm not sure that happens. I'm pretty sure that there have been times in the past years when I have been struggling so much emotionally or physically with my own issues, that I don't always recognize the struggles of others. We have a much better insight to the whole bc journey than do women who have never heard "those words"...I only hope that I learn from the experience. 

nihahi - lol the top of my bra peeks out of the top of some of my dresses. Not the tops of my boobs. lololol I need more like a demi-cup bra, or some sort of bra that does not come up so high, ideally with thinner straps than what I have... but it also has to be comfortable, and have enough coverage for the sides of my boobs. I need to spend some quality time at the lingerie department of JCPenney's... might do that next weekend.

Oh and I got my ScarFade cream in the mail today! Can't wait to start using it tonight!

goldie I try to leave the bc stuff behind, except when it comes to other women with bc. Then I can talk about it all day. But - and this is just me, I know others feel differently and I think it's a personal choice - I don't want "breast cancer patient/survivor" to be one of the primary things I label myself with. I am a woman, a sister, daughter, wife, social worker, friend, bird lover, Jersey girl, etc etc etc... I want any mention of having gone through breast cancer to be far down on that internal list I have of things I label myself with, or things that other people see me as being. I give great credit though to those women who sort of "own" having had breast cancer, and it's a big part of who they are, and they are comfortable with that... those are the women I feel like I can count on the most, to be available to give me support when I need it.