I had an expansion yesterday and got the great news that it is my final expansion. I am so relieved, especially after having to go through these expansions twice. My exchange surgery is still on schedule for mid-December.

This is a huge relief. School is really stressful right now so it is great to have one less thing on my plate to worry about! I have my last maternity clinical rotation tomorrow. I’m sad to be done with that rotation but also excited to start my pediatric rotation next!

I had my follow-up appointment yesterday to look at my tissue damage and see how it was doing. Thankfully, it looks a lot better! It still doesn’t look great, but it is sooooooo much better than it was before. After carefully removing the bandage, my surgeon said “I’m so relieved!” That made me feel so much better without even seeing it. Adam was with me at the appointment and I saw the relief on his face when he saw it too.

At my last appointment, my surgeon drew a purple circle around the area that was damaged – and the damage is so much smaller than the circle now! I really believe the hyperbarics helped heal and I will continue to go at least once a week until my next surgery. I’ve also been receiving some massage and cupping at physical therapy and I think that helped with the blood flow a lot too.

I have a bandage over the area again, and it will continue to stay on for a while. I’m also going to start my expansions again next week, so I can get back to the size I was before the damage occurred. And I am still on track for my exchange surgery (expanders to implants) on 12/16. I really appreciate everyone’s good wishes and support, I am very thankful!!

Sorry for not blogging in a bit, I’ve basically been either at school or in hyperbaric oxygen treatments throughout the past week. I’ve been trying to stay as relaxed as possible but it hasn’t been easy. Something that stresses me out a lot is uncertainty, and it’s tough to not know what is under the bandages covering where my tissue damage is. I’m putting out positive energy that it will look better or the same as before, but am preparing myself in case it’s worse. My appointment with my surgeon is this Thursday so I’ll keep everyone posted.

We’re really bummed to have missed the wedding this weekend, but it was good to stay here and have time to sleep this weekend and do more hyperbarics. My skin is re-tightening up again after they took out some of the expander fluid (this is what’s supposed to happen) and it’s been getting a bit more uncomfortable again – so it’s good I didn’t fly.

Luckily, I’ve been very distracted with school. School definitely started off very fast paced this quarter so I haven’t had too much time to think about all the possibilities of the tissue damage. During hyperbaric treatments, I’m in a big glass tube filled with oxygen for 2 hours. That would certainly be a good time to stress out, but luckily they have lots of movies you can watch during the treatment. So far, I’ve watched: Legally Blonde (1 and 2), Maid in Manhattan, How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days, Dreamgirls, My Big Fat Greek Wedding, Bridesmaids, and Knocked Up. It definitely makes the experience more enjoyable and not claustrophobic. I’ll keep everyone updated next week!

Thanks so much to everyone who checked in after my last post about the possible tissue damage saga.  To catch you up on the details, check out my last post. My reconstructive surgeon is incredible and had me text her pictures of how the possible damage was progressing. It was clear that it got worse pretty quickly (looking like a bruise on Thursday to a blister with a ton of bruising around it on Saturday night). When I sent her an updated picture on Sunday, she asked me to meet her in her office so she could take a look. She thought I could wait until Monday to be seen, but wanted to be safe (again, what an awesome surgeon).

She believes I accidentally hit my expander somehow and didn’t notice because my breasts are still numb. Normally, a bruise will heal, but because my blood flow is compromised because of the mastectomy, it led to tissue damage and created a blister over the top layer. This is actually good news, because my body provided a sterile cover for the tissue. She taped it up and I am going to see her again later next week for her to see how it is looking. She also removed 200 CCs of saline from that side so my skin could relax and heal more quickly. I also asked her to remove 100 CCs from the right side so I wouldn’t look completely uneven 🙂

Luckily, I don’t have any restrictions right now except cardio, so I can still go to school and clinicals. My surgeon is hoping it heals on its own and then she can slowly re-expand it. She’s also pretty certain I won’t have to delay my exchange surgery (swapping out expanders for implants) which I am really happy about since I am on such a tight timeline doing this all while in school. Also, a mastectomy is an extremely complex surgery, so complications are not uncommon and I’m relieved she thinks it can heal naturally. When I went into the appointment in her office, I was hoping for the best but preparing for the worst, thinking I might have to go into surgery to remove the tissue – so I am very relieved. It is still touch and go though so I am laying low except for school stuff right now. Sadly, we were supposed to go to our good friends’ wedding in DC this weekend and had to cancel our trip, which is a huge bummer.

I’m also doing hyperbaric oxygen chamber treatments again to hopefully promote healing. I’ll keep everyone posted on how I’m doing, but this could have been a lot worse. Please send good healing vibes/thoughts/prayers that I heal naturally.

I started school again this week which was good but also tough. I was still sore from Monday’s expansion so there was a lot of anxiety about going back – especially having a math test on day one. But it was a lot better than I expected (not the test, that was rough). I got a lot of friends checking in and giving me gentle hugs and well wishes, and wasn’t too sore (especially thanks to my homies carrying my laptop and backpack for me).

The bad part was a bruise suddenly appeared Thursday morning and it’s progressively gotten worse. Today I put on my nursing student hat and did an assessment on it and it definitely felt more like tissue than a bruise. I called my reconstructive surgeon and she asked me to send her pictures and she’d call me back. When she called back she said that it appeared to be tissue damage and that sometimes people are numb and the expanders can hit against something and they don’t notice. Her advice was to stay in and lay low  and send her a picture tomorrow afternoon. If it looks worse she will have me come in to see her and possibly remove some fluid. If not, I’ll see her on Monday. She just wants to make sure my blood flow isn’t compromised.

Of course this is scary but I’m just trying to take my husband’s advice and just think about best outcomes rather than worst outcomes. So I’m just going to lay low, not use my left side, and watch some distracting tv 🙂