Surgery and Metastatic Disease - part II

Last week, in a flurry of appointments, Dr. Mew and Dr Temple-Oberle (pronounced tem-pull-oh-brrr-lee) agreed to perform a single mastectomy with reconstruction on me. It is wonderful and I'm so pleased. I'm so glad that they were willing to take on the risk of performing surgery on a stage IV and I'm going to be so ready for surgery by eating leafy greens, building my immunity, working out and having my home set-up for healing.

The reconstruction and mastectomy is going to be a one surgery performance that involves a shaped implant (like the gummy bear one below) and "skin grafting" using AlloDerm which is a regenerative tissue matrix or lab created skin. Doing this will minimise my time under anesthesia and the possibility of infection especially because I don't  really have enough tissue to use my own fat or muscle. I plan on getting one breast  done now and then having the other done down the road when I'm even healthier. Dare to dream, I say! I'm slated for mid January so keep posted for some great photos. I want to have a piece of the tumour in my breast so that I can see it; now that would be interesting.

I basically, walked around feeling great after that for a few days because when most appointments aren't great it felt so good to have a win. I hope that you had a win this week :).

Cail

Reconstruction and Metastatic Disease

Yesterday was weird, not bad, just weird. I went in to the meeting with Dr. Temple-Oberle like Cindy Lou Who, all sugar peas and light with no idea that I was an anomaly.

It turns out that in Dr. T-O's career she has never even been referred a stage 4 patient for reconstruction and that the Foothills hospital has never done a breast reconstruction on a metastatic breast patient! I did not realize this because I forget that I'm not perfectly standard but it turns out that I'm not :). So, my other doctors kept pushing me through the system to meet more people until I got to Dr. T-O (really liked her by the way). I think that they thought if she could meet me then I might have a chance and I think that I do. That's what we discussed, I mean, at the current time, she does not have her colleagues approval but I think that she's willing to perform a single reconstruction if she can get enough people on board. I've been referred to an anesthesiologist who, I assume, will have to decide if I'm hale enough for anesthesia and that extra hour under general slumber that reconstruction requires. Interestingly, I would be cleared to do a double mastectomy without reconstruction, weird huh? But there's a precedent for that and doctors rely on precedents just like lawyers.

I discovered that stage IV's were not offered reconstruction because it was felt too dangerous because we are, supposedly, frail? I guess that we are weakened but aren't babies and elderly people too? I mean my grandpa, Bobbyboy, went under general anesthesia at the age of 73 and they do infant surgeries like the one that was done on Kill's cousin. I think that I'm easily in their realm.

In an ideal scenario I'd be able to get a double double as my mum calls it (double mastectomy with both breasts reconstructed using implants) but in this current realm I could settle for doing one now and the right one on the future when research catches up. Because I don't have cancer in both breasts the other isn't a necessity and doesn't merit the risk of infection and death on the operating table.

Cool huh? I think that both Dr. Temple-Oberle and I are mulling today but we'll see what happens and frankly, I'd love to be an innovator with she and Dr. Mew.