Friday, March 4, 2011

The joy, and the pain of a mammogram

My people, today I did the thing that sends most adult women into a cold sweat of absolute dread.  Yes, that is right, the word whispered in hushed tones with a shudder in our voice.  A mammogram.  For me it is ever so special.  Since one side is sort of less than there.  The technician gets to wedge me, cram me, squish me, and cram me into the machine.  If you have never had a mammogram here is what the machine looks like.





The mammogram I had today was a presurgery test for my reconstruction.  Which I will be doing bright and early on the morning of the 21st of this month.  I made a promise to yall that I'd keep you posted so here are the details.   I'll be having a section of muscle moved from under my shoulder blade to my breast muscle.  Then they will slip an implant that can be inflated with fluid over a period of time.  This will is called tissue expansion.  After many months of a bit of pain and healing, I should be back to normal.  Plus I get to have a nice tattoo of a a nipple area. 

That is a lot of detail right?  Breast cancer and reconstruction can be a very scary thing.  I am not sharing so much of myself to scare anyone, but instead to let you know it is going to be okay, if you are facing this yourself.  The mammogram, well, that's just annoying.  The surgery, once you have it all mapped out and know what to expect it is just a series of steps.  Put one foot in front of the other and before you know it you will have walked them all. 

As things progress, I'll be keeping you posted, cause your my people.

Leslie

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