Monday, August 31, 2015

Cancer Part Deux

As all good plans go...they are always subject to change.  :)

It turned out I did not have the BRCA1 or BRCA2 Genetic Mutation.  I, instead, have the FANCC genetic mutation which could be the cause for my breast cancer (as well as a myriad of other health issues I've had all my life).  Unfortunately, Tricare doesn't recognize that mutation for the removal of the second breast so I kept one breast and they removed the other cancerous one.  I opted against breast augmentation and instead decided to use a breast prosthesis.  

How did the surgery go?  Well, I was allergic to something and broke out in a rash all over my neck, lower face, and upper chest.  The doctor thinks it might have been the tape the anesthesiologist used.  I thought it might be the Ancef antibiotic but he doesn't want to take that off the table in case he needs to use it in the future.  It was more painful that the actual 14 inch incision in my chest that wrapped around to my back until it cleared up two weeks later.  It started as blisters and then itched me into craziness.  Good distraction from the actual mastectomy I guess.  lol.

After they took the tube out, I have developed a really nice seroma.  (This is a pocket of clear serous fluid that sometimes develops in the body after surgery. When small blood vessels are ruptured, blood plasma can seep out; inflammation caused by dying injured cells also contributes to the fluid.)  We want to wait and see if my body will absorb the fluid as it should but it really is quite painful now that it is the size of a small breast sitting there on my chest muscle.  I see the surgeon tomorrow and I may take on the risk of infection just to get the fluid out.  (This is why it isn't recommended to drain them.)

So, all this is EXTREMELY boring but I wanted to put it in here so that I would remember it all if I ever got cancer in the other breast and had to go through this all over again.  You know, like "what is normal and what isn't for my body".  lol  

Everyone is so concerned about me psychologically losing a breast.  Personally, I say GOOD RIDDANCE.  That breast had provided me with nothing but worry for the last five years.  Once this pain is gone, I am going to be a very very happy woman.  I have no regrets for having lost the breast.  I just see it as God's plan for my life.  I don't need it to be a better person.  I don't need to be happy.  I don't need it to worship God.  My husband loves me just as much without it as he did with it.  Life is still GOOD.  I am thankful for the opportunity God gave me to rid myself of current and all future cancers in that breast.  Praise be to God...

"Say Thank You

By Max Lucado

The Apostle Paul says, “Give thanks for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ” (Ephesians 5:20).
You don’t have to name a child after God, but then again, you could. Or you could draft a letter listing all His blessings or write a song in His honor. You could sponsor an orphan or adopt a child just because God adopted you. The surest path out of a slump is marked by the road sign, “Thank you.”
But what of the disastrous days? Are you grateful then? Jesus was. “On the night when He was betrayed, the Lord Jesus took some bread, and when He had given thanks, He broke it…” (1 Corinthians 11:23-24). Not often are the words betrayed and thanks in the same sentence, much less in the same heart. Anyone can thank God for the light. Jesus teaches us to thank God for the night!"

By Grace Alone -

Teresa