Day 7 Wednesday

When I was a little girl, I got mad my mother gave me a training bra. I didn't want boobs. And to be honest, I was well past a training bra!

To me, boobs were annoying. I got teased about them. HOWEVER, later in life, I was VERY grateful they fed + nourished our youngest two babies (Trae, got spared that... my 17-year-old brain had memories of my mother feeding our younger brother and sister 5ish years prior. It seemed "disgusting" in my too-young-to-have-a-baby brain.)

So I've never really been a "boob" girl, meaning I didn't (intend to) flaunt them. At times they were hard to disguise. In my 30's I wore a compression/reduction bra A LOT to minimize the size of them. You get used to not being able to fully breathe in those puppies.

And then 6 years ago when I turned 40 I had a Mastopexy (breast lift + ask him to remove AS MUCH tissue AS POSSIBLE to get me smaller). I kept this surgery fairly quiet. The surgeon did a great job with the "lift", however, in the end, I still fit into the same size DDD bra. Gah! Gross!

Fast forward to now…When I got over the shock of this boob cancer diagnosis, I felt “If I’m going to go through all this work of getting rid of cancer, then I want the opportunity to at least be the size I want once and for all.” I’m still unsure if that’s the right mindset, but it feels the best right now. :-)

Because of my previous boob surgery (Mastopexy), my current breast surgical oncologist got to make the incision across the boob/nipple vs. underneath. Underneath was how the last was performed. And it took her a little bit longer in surgery due to scar tissue from the previous surgery, too. I’m really glad she is super meticulous and did what she needed to do!

When I first met her (and every meeting after) she seemed very rigid. There was no room for joking and she was straight to the point with factual information. I was scared of her at times and I loved her, too. She was who I clamped hands (probably painstakingly) with as I went under anesthesia. Her determination to remove cancer and dedication to me will always be remembered!

Now that she removed the cancer, I’ll be working with Plastics and Oncology (meds), however, will get one final appointment with her mid-Jan. I can’t wait to see her again!