Sometimes on a Journey you have to take a side road

I went back to the plastic surgeon today for a 2nd visit. It seems my tissue issue has not improved enough to trust it to it's own healing. 

There is an area of skin on both sides that is about the size of a quarter that is not responding with blood flow the way the doctor had hoped. When I saw him Monday he had me begin applying a topical  antibiotic cream and come back today in hopes for improvement. 

Well today came and improvement was not enough. Doctor is afraid if left as is, infection may develop and spread into the tissue expanders. If that were to occur we would have a whole lot of mess in my chest.  AND WE DON'T WANT THAT!

So what do we do?  Well we go back to surgery on Friday afternoon. I will go to the ambulatory surgery center at MMC sometime that afternoon and will be home that evening. Dr. Medling will go in and cut out the skin that won't cooperate, pull the happy skin together, stitch me up and send me home. 

Will go back to the doctor on Tuesday to be told "the second surgery was a huge success!"

Do ya get that?  I am calling it out as a success right here and now in the name of Jesus!

Tomorrow I follow up with the general surgeon who did the mastectomies and will get final pathology and staging. Likely will get referral to oncologist to talk about chemo. Immediately after seeing general surgeon will pre-register in same building for Friday's surgery. 

Does anyone have a 2015 calendar?  I am running out of days already!  Just kidding, I have one.

The brighter moments of the day consisted of my friend Trish coming over and we played beauty shop. She straightened my hair and I felt like a whole new person. I have had my hair in a bun for two weeks now and was afraid of being nominated to be Mrs. Clause in a Christmas pagent. After the beauty session we stopped by the new Walmart to pick me up a couple of sassy new zip front tops/jackets since I am required not to wear anything pullover.  No I will not take off my jacket because all that is under is an ace bandage.  We grabbed a bite of lunch and were off to the doctor. Nothing like a little retail therapy to stimulate the endorphins needed when finding out about more surgery. 

Now if you really want a chuckle, I shared a story with Trish while she was doing my hair about when I was a young gal and me and my cousin Kim played beauty shop. You see my aunt kept me and my brother while my mom worked. That was back in the 60s when Dippity Doo came onto the scene as the top hair product. Well I have 4 older sisters that we watched closely when they Dippity Did their hair. Kim decided to be the stylist and I was the customer. She leaned me back in the little platform rocker we had and just kept putting the product in my hair. I would say "that's enough Kim" to which she would reply " no wait, just a little more". The problem with this fun day of make believe was that our Dippity Doo was a large cardboard box of Vaseline!  Needless to say when my aunt came in I spent the rest of the day laying on her kitchen counter with my head in the sink getting a real washing. She even used de-greaser!  I don't have a problem with oily hair to this day. Thanks Kimbo!

Be blessed love and pray for each other!

Sherry