Exchange Surgery

I had my exchange surgery one week ago. I expected a lot more pain, but the pain is bearable. I still have some soreness at my scar-lines and at the revision lines. I am tired, but I know when to rest. The weird thing about this surgery is that I was cleared to drive on Monday. I didn't get drains, just antibiotics and a compression bra. I have been going on slow walks & I really think the walking and staying active has helped with my healing and prevention of a seroma this time around.

When I woke up from surgery, I honestly was pretty disappointed. The implants just looked small and square. Not what I expected FOOBs to be at all. Apparently the implants have to settle in their pockets to get the full effect and swelling needs to go down. Also implants are shaped much different from real boobs. They are wider and rounder, which means it may seem small but the overall "liquid" volume of implants is actually much larger than they appear. Hence, I tried on an old 34 C bra of mine & the cups were too small. The band was too big. I am now a little more excited to find out what I actually fit in and to go for a real bra fitting in 5 weeks.

Now, I have to wear a zip-front sports bra type thing. I got two from under-amour. I went with these before ordering "surgical bras", because I figured they could be re-used again when I can run again in 6 weeks. They seemed to have no preference on the type of sports bra that I got, as long as it wasn't too tight and that I was comfortable and felt supported. I ended up with a size L, I was so surprised that medium squished me! I used to be a size S, so this was a big ego boost too. I will be getting a stage 2 compression bra next Monday at my follow-up appointment. Apparently this is another type of ugly zip front bra that provides compression. I am also going to get a script for surgical bras, because my insurance covers 3-4 bras every 6 months. I might as well take advantage of this too. :-) All in all the surgery was great & I really won't know what the final product looks like for around 2 months. The implants have to settle & I am okay with that. They keep looking better everyday and my clothes fit wonderfully. I finally don't "disappear" in a size S top.

I also started Tamoxifen yesterday. Tamoxifen is an anti-estrogen therapy. I will need to be on Tamoxifen for 5 years. My oncologist said that he wasn't going to even consider removing my ovaries, which some BC girls do, because it puts me at worse risk for cardiac issues and osteoporosis if he does remove them. Also he is not going to use Lupron, to shut down my ovaries, because no studies have been published to show that Lupron + Tamoxifen is anymore effective than Tamoxifen alone. So here is to daily Tamoxifen for 5 years & more hot flashes post Chemo-pause. Tamoxifen will be the most helpful treatment for me...I was 95% Estrogen positive & Tamoxifen is the #1 treatment for that. Wish me luck!

Now onto the next step: Radiation. I have my planning session on Friday, so I will definitely post an update about that soon. I will most likely start Rads on June 20 or the 27th. The end of this journey will be here exactly before I am 27. Perfect Timing!!