Last week I went in for the surgery that was the prep for the big one in two weeks.
All went well, got to go home the same day as the surgery. I was a little surprised at just how big the incision is though. I was expecting a little two inch cut on my abdomen. Nope. The incision is basically from hip to hip just under my belly. You skinny ladies will not know how uncomfortable this is. I have a belly. I call her Muffy, short for Muffin Top. We are old friends, I have known Muffy most of my adult life. The suture line is in that crease underneath Muffy.
Mounds also gave Righty an upgrade. He took out the tissue expander and replaced it with a boob much nicer than the original. Score! I am half stacked now. I have one tit and one pit.
The big surgery is scheduled for early Feb. This one will relocate Muffy north to my pit. It involves tunneling and removing rib sections. How gross is that? Glad I will be asleep.
I had an appointment with Mounds this morning to check the incisions and pull a few stitches. He also marveled at his handy work with Righty. He commented on what a beautiful breast is was and then took a photo. I wonder if Mounds has children or if he just carries around a wallet full of breast photos? He acted like a proud papa. Whatever, the man is a genius.
I have been ordered to take it easy for the next two weeks so I will be ready for surgery. No more horseback riding, no swimspa, no lifting more than 5lbs, no stairs. That should be easy…….

Enjoying every minute of the days before I start back up with the cancer battle. Sunday was a gorgeous day, both my daughters joined me on a wonderful ride on the beach. I am really enjoying riding horses again and am so fortunate to live in such a lovely county where there are so many beautiful trails and beaches.
Tomorrow I have an appointment with Mounds to iron out all of the details regarding the procedures and surgeries. I am certain I will regret all of the over indulging during the holidays when Mounds examines me and wants to start coloring on my abdomen. Cringe.

My granddaughter Gwen was one of the highlights of 2013.
For the most part I am thrilled to have 2013 in the rear view mirror. On to bigger and better things in 2014. When this crazy cancer ride started I told the doctors that they had total control of my body for one year. They could put me through whatever treatments, procedures and surgeries they felt necessary to battle the C beast. Clearly, they plan on using every minute of that time plus a bonus month or two. I am feeling generous, I will give them that.
2013 was filled with challenges and pain, but also plenty of great moments with friends and family. I have learned so much about myself and just how important a positive outlook is even when things seem overwhelming. I want to thank everyone for their support. I could not have done it without you.
Happy New Year!

It has been nice having a month off from treatments & surgeries. I have been enjoying my family, friends and my animals. I recently began riding again. A silver lining of the chemo was that it reduced the mass I have on my brain. That mass, an acoustic neuroma, was causing severe vertigo so I had to give up riding years ago. After chemo I realized that the vertigo episodes were rare. A friend, Carla, thought I needed to try riding again. We went on a very nice trail ride and I was hooked. My wonderful husband bought me a couple amazing trail horses, a new fancy truck to pull the trailer! Life is good. Riding is super therapy for my soul.
I am looking forward to a relaxing Christmas with family. Going to try to enjoy every minute I have with them before I get ready for the next wave of surgeries & treatments. The first surgery is scheduled for Jan 16. The second one, the big doozy, will be a couple weeks after. The second one requires a 5 day hospital stay and a very long, difficult recovery. Not going to think about that right now. I will likely have a pity party a few days before.
I hope everyone has a very Merry Christmas. Thank you all for the continuing love and support. It has been a helluva year and I could not have done it without all of you!

After 11 days of snagging the tube on door handles, dog paws and occasionally Montel’s mouth, I am drainless and my drain is in the trash where it belongs. As much as I hated the drains I was dreading the removal. If you remember, I was quite the baby when I had drains pulled last time. My memory is a little foggy but I think I threw a punch at the doctor. This time around it was not so bad. Mounds took a more gentle approach, pulling slowly rather than the yank with all your might technique the doctor used last time.
I also had some of the sutures removed. All in all it was a good morning.
I am still getting used to the idea of looking down and seeing a dent where boobzilla once lived. This is the first time since this whole adventure began that I have not had some sort of expander or implant in there. Now it is just a ditch. Kind of weird.
I still have a couple more surgeries to look forward to. Going to give my body a break for a little while though. I think I start the Tamoxifen again in a week or two.
Now I am just trying very hard to get my mind cleared and my memory back. People warned me about chemo brain. They were right. It is frustrating not remembering simple things that should not even require a second thought. My long term memory is even worse but that is ok. There is a lot of stuff in my past that I would like to forget any way!
I have been using the site luminosity.com. Lots of entertaining brain games.
Have a wonderful day everyone! Big week for me. I turn 50 on Thursday! 50!! Ouch. Maybe that has something to do with the memory issues.

Mounds to the rescue. I had an appointment with Mounds on Tuesday. As expected, he was not pleased with Lefty’s appearance. He hoped that skin grafts would be able to salvage my poor abused boob. He applied a wound dressing to it, started me on antibiotics and set up an appointment for the skin grafts on Thursday.
It felt so good to finally have someone take Boobzilla seriously.
I told Mounds that I was scheduled for a brain MRI the next day. He looked a little confused, asked if it was definitely an MRI not a CT scan. Definitely an MRI. He told me to cancel that since I have a tissue expander in my right breast that has metal in it. That might be a problem with an MRI. Good to know!
After 24 hrs on the antibiotics I already started feeling better. The pressure & chest pain started to subside. After 36 hours I could take a deep breath again. I was no longer clammy all the time. Unbelievable, after weeks of multiple doctor appointments, so many test and procedures, being told that the pain and discomfort I was feeling was due to a blood clot or my cancer spreading, I was improving just by popping a few pills. Thank God for Dr Mounds.
Thursday I went in for my skin grafts. I knew there was a chance that it would turn in to a bigger surgery if the skin & tissue was too damaged and necrotic to salvage with skin grafts. I woke up with a flat chest and drain tubes. Safe to assume that my procedure was not the easy peasy one we were hoping for.
Mounds ended up removing the implant that had been placed in the surgery before radiation started. The tissue was damaged all the way to the implant.
I am feeling so much better now. Some normal discomfort from the post surgery stuff and the pesky drain issues. Other than that, it is so nice to be back on the road to recovery, relatively pain free. Life is good!

Here is the underside of Boobzilla. The discoloration is spreading. The black-yellowish area is now about 6-7 inches. It kind of oozes nastiness. This area was not initially blistered during treatment. It got red, but never got as painful as the other areas that blistered severely. It has been 3 weeks since my last radiation treatment. Why the heck is the burning getting worse? Poor Lefty is so painful, swollen and nasty looking. The doctors are not concerned. I see Dr Mounds again on Tuesday. Hopefully he will have answers.
Yesterday was my PET scan. Preliminary results are good. I will have a brain MRI on Wednesday and then will meet with the doctor to discuss all of the results.
I really think all of the pain is from something running amuck in my frankenboobie. It just does not seem normal to me. What do I know? Hopefully next week will be the week for answers.
Enjoy the weekend! Sorry for the graphic photo.

It appears that I am finished with my treatments! Other than taking the Tamoxifen for the next 5 years. I was not qualified for the clinical trial, so….this is it! On Monday I went to the hospital to be de-ported. It feels good to be rid of the port.

I visited Dr Mounds on Tuesday. He was not happy with the severity of my radiation burns. He was kind enough to call in a prescription for a new ointment to put on them. So much better.

It is so odd to be at this point. In my mind, I figured that at the end of this journey one of the doctors would announce “Congratulations! You are cancer free!” Not so much. Apparently I will never be considered cancer free. I am not even what they used to call remission. I am just a breast cancer patient that finished treatment. For now.

The one thing the doctors agree on is that it is not if, but when the cancer comes back. Now I am suppose to be on the alert for persistent bone pain, a cough that will not go away, fatigue. All of these are signs that the cancer might be back. Sweet. I will be 50 next month. Bone pain and fatigue are the norm for me.

I I don’t mean to sound like I am complaining. Just making an observation. After the past 8 months everything revolved around fighting cancer. I was no longer just Genevieve, I became Genevieve, the one with breast cancer.

No longer a patient. I have been kicked to the curb and don’t let the door hit you on the way out. No ticker tape parade, no high fives with the specialists.

Time to get back to being just Genevieve.

Thank you all for joining me on this journey. It has been a helluva ride.

Cheers!