Hello again!
So with family and friends told, it was basically time to get on with it. I was booked in for an operation only two weeks after being diagnosed, which was great because it didn’t give me too much time to think about it. I asked, right from the outset, if I could have a double mastectomy but my surgeon said it wasn’t necessary.
At that time, Angelina Jolie was in the news having had a double mastectomy with reconstruction because she had a high chance of developing breast cancer. Yet here I was, actually diagnosed, and being told no. What did she have that I didn’t. Oh yeah, shed loads of money, beauty, fame. You get the idea. Looking back I really wish I had been more insistent. And I definitely found something out about myself; I’m am soooo a people pleaser. I wanted my surgeon to like me more than I considered my own wants. I didn’t want to upset her by being difficult. Now I really wish I was a right COW and got my OWN WAY!! Oh well.
So I went in for a lumpectomy. Funny thing is they actually tell you very little about what’s going to happen to you. So I rock up at some ungodly hour, starving, thirsty, and the first thing they give me is a very gorgeous pair of green socks that are so tight I think my legs will fall off. I did feel ever so slightly glamorous, NOT. The four of us that were in for the chop that day all followed behind a nurse, like little ducklings, into a corridor. None of us had a clue why we were there. Well, it transpires that the surgeon obviously needs to know where the cancer is so they stick metal rods into your breast to pinpoint the exact position. These rods are then replaced by metal markers during surgery. That was going to make interesting explanation when I set the metal detectors off at the airport. I showed James and said ‘Look I’m becoming a cyberman’.
A couple of hours later I was in surgery. I woke up in recovery with my surgeon looming over me as she explained I’d had complications and had to have another surgery straight away. What, no glass of wine before I go in again? Ok, I’ll settle for water. Nope.
Anyway, two surgeries down and all was well, or so I thought………..