I’ve been healing and taking care of myself the best I know how. I took 8 days off of work following my mastectomy, which by the way, is the longest stretch I’ve taken since having Tater almost 5 yrs ago! It felt great! And well, to be honest I didn’t have much of a choice! I am beyond thankful for my incredible husband who always takes such good care of me. In the weeks following surgery, we expanded as much as possible. My left breast, which is the one with cancer, is expanded to 650cc’s. We needed to expand as much as possible prior to radiation to allow my skin the best chance to effectively stretch and heal before beginning radiation. The whole process will really break down and damage my skin. We will expand the remaining 150cc’s at a much slower rate after radiation is complete. I know I know, how big are you going girl?! Well, for one, I had 38D breasts prior to surgery, and for 2 I told my plastics doc ” I am 29 years old with breast cancer, I’m getting some great big fake boobies out of this! After everything is done, I will have 800cc’s total in each breast. My right breast is currently only 450cc’s. This is to ensure our radonc could get the necessary angles for radiation. At first, I was pretty upset that my breasts would be such different sizes, but after a few days I myself have forgot they are not the same. Last week I went in to have my mapping done and receive my sexy 4 tiny black dot tattoos. Which by the way, do not hurt at all because they are done over my mastectomy site which has no feeling! Today, we went in for my simulation. Which, by that way was not fun. I laid on the treatment table for 45 minutes while they lined up the lasers to the 4 tattoos I got last week, took several measurements, and took several xray type images to program the machine for me to begin radiation tomorrow. The tech also drew lots of pretty green sharpie lines all over me to show me where the radiation will be and so help me know where to focus my skin care. Laying there for 45 minutes with my arms above my head post mastectomy was pretty painful. More than I was prepared for to be honest. But, one more thing crossed off our list. Tomorrow when we arrive, we will be able to walk in without checking in, change into a gown, sit down in the waiting room while they watch the cameras looking for me, then head back to the treatment room for 15 minutes of laying on the table as the machine radiates my left breast, and armpit. It should be pretty smooth sailing for the next 5 weeks. There are lot’s of fun side effects that come along with radiation. I have loaded the fun consent I had to sign for you to see. The most common are skin break down, burns, and fatigue. Oh joy, as if I am not tired enough from the chemo I still get every 3 weeks, something else to run me down 🙂 I have very quickly become accustomed to the old lady bedtime schedule! Before leaving today we went over what skin products to use to take care of the skin break down and burning, what deodorant is safe to use (most deodorants have metal in them which is not safe during radiation) and the fun fact that I cannot shave my left armpit because it will only cause worse skin break down. Fun stuff! Luckily, the radiation should kill a lot of the hair so hopefully there won’t be much for me to worry about! A couple of side notes, my hair is growing, my dead nails are finally less painful and growing, and I have figured out a few comfortable positions to sleep!! One step at a time, we are getting through this! We continue to grow through each day. Tomorrow is another big day, we have our surgery consult with our OB for having my ovaries removed. I’ll keep you updated. I am pretty fragile when it comes to this.