My Journey Begins

Today I had my second appointment with the general surgeon.  It was short and sweet, basically just went to get a referral to Plastics.  He had gone over everything at my first appointment.  They will try to do a Nipple-Sparing Double Mastectomy.  The plan is that they will go in and take out all the tissue and Plastics will then put in my tissue expander's.  Over the next few months I will go in for expansions until we have reached the implant size that Plastics and I agree on.  I will then have a second surgery to insert the implants.  Hopefully it will just be the two surgeries, if there is a need for additional surgeries it will be to fine tune things after the implant is in.

The general surgeon mentioned at this appointment the option to do a tissue flap implant in one or both breasts (most likely just one).  I am not sure how I feel about doing that, I will need to do more research and talk to the Plastics team before I make a decision either way for that.

In general I am at peace with the surgery.  I know that I have an amazing support system here locally and that I have so many people around the world that will be supporting me in prayer. Just because I am at peace does not mean that I am not scared.  I am very nervous about the surgery and the recovery afterwards.  I need to just have faith that God will not give me more than I can handle and that He will protect me through it all.

I have prayed many times, asking God to help me make a decision about this surgery.  This morning I was given a gift from God.  It came in the form of a message from my best childhood friend.   She told me she felt that He was giving her a message for me.  It was EXACTLY what I needed to hear today.  Basically her message was "remember why you started looking into this surgery to begin with".  In that moment I knew what the answer was.  The biggest reason I want to do this is because I want to be around to watch my kids grow up.  By decreasing my chances as much as possible, hopefully I won't ever get a Breast Cancer diagnosis.  I really don't want my family to have to see me go through that.

Thanks to everyone who continues to show their support as I continue on this journey.  I means more than you will ever know!

God Bless,
Gretchen