Busy Week

This has been a busy week. Monday David and I had our appointment with Dr. Massey, a plastic surgeon. She is wonderful. I am so glad that I met her. Currently there aren't a lot of options for women who require reconstruction after breast cancer. 1. Do nothing. 2. Implants. 3. A surgery that takes the muscle out of your abdomen to use for reconstruction. It doesn't make much sense to me to take muscle that you need to make something that is cosmetic. Now there are a few more options, DIEP flap, SGAP flap, and I-GAP flap surgeries. But there are very few doctors who are able to do these microsurgeries because they are hard to do and take longer in the OR. All three are the state of the art in breast reconstruction that use skin, fatty tissue and blood vessels from the abdomen or buttock instead of muscle. Dr. Massey is one of the few doctors in the country who can do all three of these surgeries. She works primarily out of Charleston, South Carolina but she is working with Alta View Hospital to get the equipment and train the staff so that she can perform the surgeries here in Utah. I have plenty of time to consider my options. It will be March of next year before I would be ready for that step. For anyone who is considering reconstruction, regardless of where you live in the country, you need to check out Dr. Massey's website before you do anything . It is http://www.diepflap.com .

It has been a while since I have taken the time to thank everyone who is helping us. Thank you for all of the cards, calls, emails and comments, meals and support. David's work has been such a support in more ways than I could ever mention. I received a card last week signed by everyone in David's Seattle office. That was a nice thought. I don't know who everyone is but David does. I also received a card today from one of the teachers at the elementary school. Once again it is so nice to know that people notice my absence and miss seeing me around. I do miss being able to help my kids at school. I used to know everything that was going on well before it was going to happen. Now I feel out of touch.

I was supposed to see Dr. Rosenthal, my surgeon today but she had to cancel. I am rescheduled for the end of the month. I am kind of glad she cancelled because I ended up sleeping most of the day. Even though I have tried to stay away from Tyler while he has been sick it isn't very easy. I have ended up with a cold. I went in for my blood test today which will tell us tomorrow if I am well enough to still do chemo. I hope I can because I don't want to postpone anything. I guess I'll find out tomorrow.