From the first moment my wife discovered she
had breast cancer, there was a deafening silence from the men I know. Even ones
whose wives, mothers or girlfriends had breast cancer seemed to have received a
gag order from some Central Cancer Command and did little more than mumble
about the experience. Not one to shut up for any known reason, I started this blog…That
was four years ago – as time passed, people searching for answers stumbled across
my blog and checked out what I had to say. The following entry first appeared in
July of 2013.
What I have
discovered is that “reconstruction” is an ongoing process. Like The South after
the Civil War, which took many years to
recover, my wife is slowly recovering from the surgery, chemotherapy – and now
the initial surgery to put in the spacers.
As I’ve documented
before, THAT surgery necessitated a few nights of sheer agony, followed by
several weeks of rebuilding strength and then regular injections of saline
solution in order to stretch the skin so that the ACTUAL implants could be
placed some time in November or December.
We are now at some
two years and four months after the initial double mastectomy.
Reconstruction in
The South took anywhere from twelve to fourteen to “it’s not done yet”…
How long will
breast reconstruction last?
Not forever,
that’s for certain! There are already signs that things are proceeding apace.
After a “triple fill” of saline in the expanders, the increase in size is
noticeable and while there’s quite a bit of soreness and tenderness and an
obvious sense of stretching involved, there is also a sense of “completion”
that I’ve noticed as well.
While we never
stopped “winking and butt tweaking” during this time, the winking is now
proceeding to raising eyebrows. There’s a sense of a return to normalcy. While
doctor visits will be something that will last “forever” as blood tests and
other tests will be a part of the new normal, dealing with the after effects of
breast cancer have become integrated into life rather than something that
happens in panic mode or has to be considered carefully.
While I loathe the
path we’ve had to take to get here, I love the fact that we are NOW here!
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