Research, Research!!

Still going to radiation everyday.  I have 8 treatments left and that's it!  Finished of, what I considered the hardest part of my treatment plan, Chemo and Radiation!!  Still have a long road...10 months of Herceptin every three weeks...5 years of Tamoxifen...and the biggest of all...reconstruction! 

I have been doing a lot of research lately on reconstruction.  There are so many options and possible outcomes.  Also, because I am having radiation, my options are limited to TRAM (they remove skin, fat and muscle tissue from my abdomen), DIEP (they use only the skin and fat from my abdomen) and Latissimus dorsi flap (they remove skin, fat and muscle from my back).  They can also do a GAP procedure, which takes skin, fat and muscle from my butt!  Which I would consider if I had a butt!! LOL   But after reading, there is a new procedure that is called BRAVA and fat grafting.  It allows women to recover their natural breasts without another surgery and with the enormous benefit of near-normal sensation in their new breasts and nipples.  The only problem is, I can only find places in the USA that do this procedure.  My hope was to get expanders and then implants.  The plastic surgeon places an expander just under your chest wall and injects it weekly/biweekly with fluid to help expand the chest wall to make room for the implant.  Unfortunately, due to the radiation, which leaves my skin very thin with little elasticity, my skin can't accommodate an implant.  So, now I plan to do more research on the fat grafting procedure and hopefully find a surgeon in Canada that performs it. 

Nothing much new...my skin is holding up with the radiation.  I am only experiencing burning (similar to a bad sun burn) and tightness.  I have a liver MRI this Friday.  The doctors are keeping an eye on the spots that were found on my liver.  Last testing, done in September showed cysts and hemangioma's on my liver.  The doctors want to watch these lesions to ensure they are nothing more than "cysts and hemangioma's."  So, busy day on Friday...have to be at the hospital for 8:30am...prep for MRI at 9:15am...then radiation at 10:45am. 

Be positive, be strong and pray for all those women and men fighting the big C!!