1 Month Later

Here I am. 1 month after my Prophylactic Bilateral Mastectomy. I admit that some days it still feels so surreal.  Healing is a hell of a journey but I have no regrets about my choice.

While I always knew I wanted to document my journey I never thought it would include pictures. Before my mastectomy I sat down with my mom and showed her pictures at different stages. She told me how thankful she was that she saw the different stages. Had she not see the after surgery images she would have walked out of my hospital room and had a melt down.

So I felt that sharing my pictures might help others going through their own journey.

My pictures and more information after the jump.

 The first picture is 3 days post op. I had 4 drains and you can tell by the look on my face that I was very uncomfortable. I woke up with 700ccs already placed in my expanders. I have this strange dent on my left side that we thought was caused by the suction on my drains.

3 days post op- 700cs

 Next picture was 2 weeks post op and a day after my first fill.  I am at 800ccs in this picture with only 2 drains remaining.  My expanders are sitting really high and they feel like rocks.

2 weeks post op-800ccs

Here is my 4 week post op picture.  3 Days earlier I had a fill (at 1000ccs in this picture) and pinched a nerve. I was in a lot of pain and I'm glad the on call doctor knew what I was describing because I was then able to take action and treat it (nothing like spending a Saturday feeling like you are being impaled).
My last 2 drains had been removed at week 3. I still have the dent on my left side and I'm doing gentle massage to help it fill out, but you can see from the picture it is getting better.

4 weeks post op -1000ccs

 I can't wait for my expanders to settle a bit and get rid of the dent on my right side and the crease on my left. I have 5 more fills to go for a total of 1500ccs.  Which is the most my doctor will do with saline that she feels is safe (silicone only goes to 800ccs and I came out of surgery with almost that much).

Still really sore, some days are better than others and fill days are always the worst. But I'm moving forward and looking forward to days that I'm not uncomfortable.