The Columbian- Life Section October 31, 2010
Click here to read The Columbian article in full.

The local paper has been following my story. I've given them full access... as you'll see when you click on the link to read the full story. Who knew my back fat would make the paper and who knew that picture would be so prominent on the online version of the story! Funny how when reading a story about my own mastectomy I notice the minute- [is minute really spelled the same way as minute?] the tan lines, the back fat when I really should be thinking... Holy shit I'm getting my boobs taken off because I have CANCER.

I hope you find the article informative, the pictures telling, and in the scope of life I hope you find all the love + support you need in the family you've created.

If you would like to read the series in The Columbian... you can click here for my archive page then scroll down to THE COLUMBIAN... click there.

I don't feel like writing. I'm wiped. I had 7 doctors appointments this week. I can't even tell you how many vitamins + pain pills I've popped or the number of hours I've slept.

What I can tell you is that I'm healing... and my boobs are getting bigger ;)

I was expanded 3 times this week- which is fast and a lot. One reason is that the expansions help reduce the amount of fluid my body retains in the pockets created in my chest during surgery- it lessons the amount of room the fluid has to hang out. I was able to get my drains out on friday- which was 2 weeks post surgery. I was then wrapped really tight with a compression bandage in order to keep the fluid level down. I'm scheduled for an ultrasound next week to double check how my body is absorbing the fluid because too much fluid can cause some ruckus.

I also got my pathology report back. Basically that means they analyze all the tissue that was removed during my mastectomy. My left breast was clean... which I expected since nothing ever showed up there to begin with. My right breast tumor came back at 6 cm which larger than originally estimated-  3 x 1.25 x 3.27. It doesn't actually grow in size, just seems the technology doesn't give a perfect reading. But I do have clear margins which means they removed all of the tumor cancer from my body. Of the 14 lymph nodes that were removed- 3 came back cancerous. The Pet Scan back in March showed 4-5 were cancerous, so some improvement, but it would have been nice to have them all dead- the good news is they were removed.

Next week I'll have a Pet Scan. This is where they do a full body scan to see if there is any cancer hanging out. There best NOT be any.

Soon I'll be getting radiation which will occur on a daily basis- m-f for six weeks.

On a personal note, I feel cheated that I didn't get to take my daughter to the pumpkin patch this month.