my adorable brother.

even though i'm taking some time away from the blog, i thought this recent event warranted a posting.

my adorable younger brother is raising money for first descents - the organization that took me on a free week-long kayaking expedition. patrick is participating in a triathlon in vegas on november 8th. and he hopes to raise at least $4,000 to help 4 cancer survivors participate in camps next year. so far, he has had an incredible response and he's very close to achieving his goal.

so...just in case you haven't heard...or if you know someone who'd be interested...

http://www.active.com/donate/firstdescents/4meggy

wild ride?

well. 2 years and 11 days after i started getoutofmyboob, 226 posts later, i think i'm ready to take a break. (although a friend said i should just change the name to checkoutmynewrack.)

i've been pretty quiet ever since my almost final reconstruction surgery. for some reason, all of a sudden, this whole process feels more private than public now. it's been 2+ years since my diagnosis. 2+ years since my mastectomy. 1 year 11 months since chemo started. 1 year 8 months since chemo ended. 1 year 6 months since my hair started growing back. and it's been pretty f-ing intense. let me tell you.

now i just feel like...i need to take a break. i need to take some time to really process all that has happened in the last two years. take some time to think about what i want to do next. and somehow that process doesn't feel possible in the public arena of getoutofmyboob.

HOWEVER. i may change my mind. i know i'll have to have some updates when all is DONE...probably about 6 more months from now.

i'm eternally grateful for what this blog helped me do: connect with people, simultaneously process and share my story, and get ridiculous amounts of support.

love, love, and love,
meghan and kitty.
and the new cancer-free boobs.
and the awesome new car.

i never thought of this connection...

"A global shortage of a radioactive drug crucial to tests for cardiac disease, cancer and kidney function in children is emerging because two aging nuclear reactors that provide most of the world’s supply are shut for repairs...

In breast cancer surgery, the radioisotope is injected to find the lymph node nearest the tumor, so it can be biopsied for signs of cancer, to determine whether more extensive surgery is needed. The alternative is to inject a dye, which sometimes does not let the surgeon find the node. Without the tool, Dr. Graham said, the quality of medical care is “dropping back into the 1960s.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/24/science/24isotope.html?_r=1&ref=us

sleepless...

...anxious about my new car.
...anxious about what comes next once i've accomplished all the goals i've set for myself.

san francisco? check.
job that i love? check.
pull-up? check.
TWO boobs? check.
new car? in about 18 hours, i will be able to say, check.

NOW what the hell do i do?

well, instead of sleeping, i wrote a letter of intent for the SAMFund grant. they were the ones that granted me money for a year of yoga, physical therapy, and car insurance. grantees can re-apply for 3 years. and all grantees have to be between 17 and 35. (i'm almost too old.) so i decided to take a sleepless night and turn it into a strong letter of intent.

i'll have the answer (if i can continue with the application process) by august 7th.

well......

...it's been a while. it's taken me a while to get used to everything. to figure out my new body.

the reveal?
last thursday i went to my post-op appt with dr. simonds. he unwrapped all the bandages. said everything looked fine. said i could really do whatever i wanted except put my arms above my head. he suggested alternating percocet with extra strength tylenol. and said he'd set another appointment in 6-8 weeks. and in about 6-12 months - once the implants "fall" and once we know i'm satisfied, we will start talking about the nipple. which...i actually don't want to talk about because he said, most commonly, he cuts half of the other nipple off and uses it on the new boob. AH!

anyway. so. i had a hard time with the reveal. i had been spending months and months looking at every woman's boobs that i passed on the street. researching online. bad celebrity boob jobs. etc. it was an obsession...and so when dr. simonds took off all the bandages i was seriously expecting for some beautiful boobalicious boobs to pop out. but...i had forgotten a lot of things. i had forgotten about scars, surgical tape, pain, AND that everyone has told me not to judge the new boobs for 4-6 months until they have properly "fallen" into place.

so i'm waiting for that to happen.

i still have the ace bandage on to help the implants fall downward. i'll have the bandage on for another 3 weeks to encourage the implants down. odd that most women want their boobs to stay up and never fall.

otherwise, i'm doing fine. not too much pain as long as i keep things minimal and slow. SO much better than february's surgery. and i'm SO grateful for that. i'm also grateful for my mom. she's been cooking, cleaning, walking kitty, cleaning out closets, scrubbing the bathtub, offering me coffee in bed, and keeping me company. she leaves within the next few days. ... how boring. what will i do then?

well...maybe what i'll do is drive around the state of california.
i'm in the process of getting a new car. to go with my new boobs.
finally, finally, finally my shitty road is coming to a real end.

tomorrow, the reveal!

i have been ace-bandaged up since surgery. and it's all surreal. maybe the surgery didn't really happen.

tomorrow i meet with the nurse to make sure everything is healing well. i'm excited for the reveal. but really, really nervous. i keep thinking about the last surgery. last time i felt f-i-n-e fine until i took the ace bandage off. and then my body just started to KILL. i'm so nervous that's what's going to happen to me this time. so far...i feel good. not too much pain. i can sleep. i can move slowly. and i'm just so nervous it'll take a turn for the worse. (!!)

we'll see. tomorrow. 10:30.

another favorite comment about this whole procedure:

"i hope you're enjoying your new breast friends."