In the raw

I figured this was the best way to show everyone how I am doing.... Straight out of the shower with drains around my neck. This is going to be a long, long road. Not to mention the mind-fuck that happens when I look in the mirror and see this. The pain is its own battle.

D is for Dori, not my bra size

saying goodbye to my second set of boobs, that is two too many.

Well tomorrow is the day folks—I will be checking in at UW hospital at 12:15pm to have these implants removed. I am thrilled with my new plastic surgeon and I know that I am in good hands (literally). I have been miserable since the beginning of June when I had my right implant that migrated up to my collar bone removed, the radiation scar tissue scraped and cut out (cringing while thinking of that malpractice) and a new implant placed there. From there I have been on more antibiotics than most people should be in a lifetime and have open sores on my body, my hair is falling out, I am in constant pain and am achy like I have the flu. Not to mention not being my bubbly sunshine and rainbows self. (HA)

me loving my new boobs!

I had a necklace created for me with tomorrows surgery date and “done and done” (a favorite phrase of mine) stamped into it. The necklace was designed and created in front of my eyes by Bonnie of Birth Designs (http://www.birthdesigns.com). It is amazing and perfect and I can’t wait to see what else she will create.

I am fortunate enough to have extreme love and support from friends and family. I have been held up when I thought I was done and without all of you I wouldn’t be who I am today.  One of these people is my wonderful cancer doula Patti Ramos (http://www.pattiramos.com/photoshoots.html), who happens to be also be an amazing photographer. Prior to my bilateral mastectomy we took lots of photos of my old boobs and my dearly missed nipples.  I am looking to my surgery tomorrow as a new beginning. I am taking out these infected implants and giving my body a chance to heal. So following tradition we took some photos to say goodbye to these breasts. It was a great experience to take photos and have Scott participate. 

Scott and I in our police lineup



yep, I ran around naked in the studio and Patti covered me with lace

proud and infected

Not only did my real boobs try to kill me, my fake ones are too. So let’s start over shall we? Let’s try this again. I will take all the positive vibes and love you can send my way tomorrow.  Starting tomorrow I will be boobless, but if I could fill those ‘skin sacks’ with hope after surgery tomorrow I would be a DD.

sour hope

Well I wish I was greeting you with better news, but you know me, I throw a fit and then apologize later. So here it goes………..my implants have to come out, and by come out I mean removed, stolen, sliced, torn, dissected, leaving me with two (what I have lovingly decided to call) “skin holes” for at least 6 weeks. I have images of being able to “tie them over my shoulder” or the old lady Magda’s boobs on There’s Something About Mary (minus the nipples and tan of course) I have no nipples and I already had cancer once, I will pass on the tan—thank you very much.

So here is the story. I have felt shitty since my surgery on the 1^st of June. You are aware that I had an intense infection, drains, and more antibiotics than I can count. Nothing seemed to make a dramatic difference, and then rashes, sores, more sores and achiness followed (and has yet to leave). Yesterday Scott and I went to my new plastic surgeon at UW and within minutes he said that my implants had to come out—I am a textbook case of an infection and that there is bacteria that is clinging on for dear life to my implant.  And to put it gingerly my previous plastic surgeon fucked me big time. After the implant migrated to my collar bone on the radiated side there should have NEVER been a surgery to scrape out the tissue. Standard of care would have been to remove said implant and then being a surgery to create a new breast with my own tissue………that didn’t happen (and was also never mentioned) so here I am. I feel cheated. I feel like I should have been given the opportunity to have a fair shot this time around. I blame myself for not doing as much research as I had previously, but come on, really?! It is your job to be a plastic surgeon in 2012, not 1980 so get your shit together.

I heart my new plastic surgeon and he was very polite about telling me how wrong my previous surgeon was. I now just have to wait for insurance to approve the surgery and I will be in the OR as soon as possible to have the implants removed. I will then continuously be dosed with antibiotics and won’t even discuss another surgery to work with my Magda boobs. That will be an image that will take a bit of time getting used to, but if I can finally not be in as much pain I would let you cut off my foot and I would work with it.

Once my body has settled down and the infection, sores, achiness, fevers/chills, anxiety and pain are at a reasonable level we will shake things up some more by doing a very intense surgery that will use skin and fat from my stomach to create new boobs. And then after that another surgery to adjust the fat to make things more symmetrical. I will go into more details later on, because right now my body is literally too sore to type. My eyes are red and raw from crying and I am so drained I think I could sleep until Monday. But I only have these boobs for a little while longer so I plan to push them together in a bra, throw some glitter on them, and my milkshake WILL bring boys to the yard.  But first, a nap.