Incredibly Thankful
I am feeling incredibly thankful for how everything went with my first major surgery.
Incredibly thankful that the Lord answered my prayers for this surgery. That I have amazing family and friends who asked specific ways to pray and how faithful the Lord was to answer those requests.
It was left up to me to choose what I wanted as far as what kind of surgery I wanted to remove what was left of my breast cancer.
I was assigned a new surgeon just before I finished chemo and I am incredibly thankful that happened!
My first surgeon was very experienced, knew what he was doing for sure, he had YEARS of experience! His bedside manner left a lot to be desired in my opinion though. He wasn't awful, he just wasn't someone (looking back now) that I would have felt comfortable to go to and been able to ask all of the questions I had along the way.
My current surgeon is the most patient doctor I have ever met. She went above and beyond to meet with me multiple times, simply to answer questions and address concerns I had, face to face and never once made me feel like I was wasting her time at all! She even went so far as to contact another plastic surgeon to get another opinion after my own research. She even let me email her and replied instead of playing phone tag with each other as questions and concerns came up. She is amazing!
After weeks of this I decided to go ahead with a double or bilateral mastectomy. One of the hardest decisions I've ever had to make. I was doubting myself all the way up to the actual surgery. Feeling as though I was having yet another of my body parts that is spoken of in the Bible as a beautiful part of me the Lord has made taken away was not an easy or lighthearted choice. I now know though that the Lord led me to this decision.
As soon as surgery was over my surgeon walked out and talked with Nathan to let him know how everything went and one of the first things she said was, "It's a good thing she chose mastectomy because to remove all of the cancer affected area and still get clear margins Sharon would have woken up to a mastectomy anyhow."
I am incredibly thankful that I did not wake up to that as a surprise!
Choosing to do both sides was for multiple reasons. It helps put my mind at ease of never having to go through breast cancer treatment again. Also though to help make me look normal again. Multiple reconstruction surgeons/plastic surgeons said that having only one breast removed and trying to match me back up would be extremely challenging, especially after one side will be radiated from the next step of treatment (as there was no way I wanted to stay that way) so they all suggested the exact same method of reconstruction which involved double mastectomy.
My surgeon gave me a long lasting pain/nerve blocker that got me through the first few days with no more than Tylenol, don't get me wrong, it was still painful and uncomfortable but I was amazed with how well I was able to manage the pain that was involved in this thanks to her doing that. I've been healing up nicely thankfully and was even able to have my drain tubes removed 7 days after surgery. God is so good! One of my biggest fears was what the pain was going to be like.
I also had amazing anesthesiologists. I voiced my concerns from when I had my port put in about how the most difficult thing and most pain was my throat from that procedure and they were amazing this time! I never would have known they put anything down my throat this time except they told me they did.
I'm incredibly thankful for such a good experience and the amazing answer to prayer thank you for the many prayers sent up on my behalf. It has put my heart at ease with the next upcoming surgery for my intestinal tumor. Thank you, thank you, thank you so much!!!
Incredibly thankful that the Lord answered my prayers for this surgery. That I have amazing family and friends who asked specific ways to pray and how faithful the Lord was to answer those requests.
It was left up to me to choose what I wanted as far as what kind of surgery I wanted to remove what was left of my breast cancer.
I was assigned a new surgeon just before I finished chemo and I am incredibly thankful that happened!
My first surgeon was very experienced, knew what he was doing for sure, he had YEARS of experience! His bedside manner left a lot to be desired in my opinion though. He wasn't awful, he just wasn't someone (looking back now) that I would have felt comfortable to go to and been able to ask all of the questions I had along the way.
My current surgeon is the most patient doctor I have ever met. She went above and beyond to meet with me multiple times, simply to answer questions and address concerns I had, face to face and never once made me feel like I was wasting her time at all! She even went so far as to contact another plastic surgeon to get another opinion after my own research. She even let me email her and replied instead of playing phone tag with each other as questions and concerns came up. She is amazing!
After weeks of this I decided to go ahead with a double or bilateral mastectomy. One of the hardest decisions I've ever had to make. I was doubting myself all the way up to the actual surgery. Feeling as though I was having yet another of my body parts that is spoken of in the Bible as a beautiful part of me the Lord has made taken away was not an easy or lighthearted choice. I now know though that the Lord led me to this decision.
As soon as surgery was over my surgeon walked out and talked with Nathan to let him know how everything went and one of the first things she said was, "It's a good thing she chose mastectomy because to remove all of the cancer affected area and still get clear margins Sharon would have woken up to a mastectomy anyhow."
I am incredibly thankful that I did not wake up to that as a surprise!
Choosing to do both sides was for multiple reasons. It helps put my mind at ease of never having to go through breast cancer treatment again. Also though to help make me look normal again. Multiple reconstruction surgeons/plastic surgeons said that having only one breast removed and trying to match me back up would be extremely challenging, especially after one side will be radiated from the next step of treatment (as there was no way I wanted to stay that way) so they all suggested the exact same method of reconstruction which involved double mastectomy.
My surgeon gave me a long lasting pain/nerve blocker that got me through the first few days with no more than Tylenol, don't get me wrong, it was still painful and uncomfortable but I was amazed with how well I was able to manage the pain that was involved in this thanks to her doing that. I've been healing up nicely thankfully and was even able to have my drain tubes removed 7 days after surgery. God is so good! One of my biggest fears was what the pain was going to be like.
I also had amazing anesthesiologists. I voiced my concerns from when I had my port put in about how the most difficult thing and most pain was my throat from that procedure and they were amazing this time! I never would have known they put anything down my throat this time except they told me they did.
I'm incredibly thankful for such a good experience and the amazing answer to prayer thank you for the many prayers sent up on my behalf. It has put my heart at ease with the next upcoming surgery for my intestinal tumor. Thank you, thank you, thank you so much!!!
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