Under construction...

Stay tuned! I’m working on the conclusion (finally) of my answer about reconstruction.  Next up, “You can do it!l. 

Just when you think you're getting a break - WHAM!

2016 was the year of reconstruction. I went through 4 surgeries last year, the last of which was December 21. It was a long year and I was looking forward to a relatively uneventful 2017. Well, God apparently had other plans for me - or my uterus did. 

WARNING: to my male readers or anyone who doesn't want to hear about any uterus-related issues, stop reading now. I won't be graphic but there are some things just are what they are. You have been warned. 

Let me start with some background. I take a daily dose of a drug called Tamoxifen.  My type of cancer was hormone receptive so I take the Tammoxifen, which works to block the hormones.  This works in breast tissue. Apparently, not so much in the uterine area. Down south, from what I understand, the drug actually mimicks the hormones.  One of my super smart doctor friends will have to explain the "why" of that one. As a result of this weirdness, tamoxifen can have some less than desirable side effects. It can cause things like thickening of the lining of the uterus and uglier things like endometrial cancer. As a patient, I was informed of all of this from the very beginning. It's quite rare, affecting about 1% of users each year, but it is possible. The doctors, as always, did a great job of explaining the risks but also why the benefits of taking the drug outweigh those risks.  The other thing you need to know is that they will not/cannot do a "proactive" hysterectomy. Believe me, I asked! You have to have symptoms before they will yank the remaining lady parts out.  That means that I have to be diligent in keeping up with my regular exams and take advantage of the various screenings for which I qualify as a younger breast cancer patient. I have to know the symptoms and signs to look for and what to do if I have them. The other thing you need to know before we proceed, is that I went through chemotherapy induced menopause way back in 2014. Other than the raging hot flashes that came with it, it was the best gift of cancer treatment! Ladies, you know what I'm talking about. I was warned that things could start up again but it could really go either way based on my age. Maybe, maybe not. Now let's get on to our story...

I started working again last Wednesday after taking a couple of weeks off to recover. I didn't make the trip to Louisville until Tuesday 1/10 and went back again on Wednesday 1/11. I eased back in but was still dealing with soreness and the travel and the pace wore me out a bit. So by Wednesday evening I was spent! I thought I would just need some rest and try to slow down a wee bit and all would be well. Then it happened. My body said, "Not so fast there Sassy Pants!" Wednesday evening I started spotting. That's not good. It makes your brain jump ahead to the list your doctors gave you of things you have to address quickly. Your brain also tries to convince you of the weirdest things. Things like, you've overdone it, you're doing too much too quickly.  Really?! How much would you have to overdo it from reconstructive surgery to make your dang uterus leak. It makes no sense! Anyway, spotting is scary - any unexpected bleeding of any amount after menopause is not a good sign. Yes, I began to stress, just a bit (a lot). I considered for a moment that I might not share this development with anyone...but the moment passed. Rewind to my initial breast cancer diagnosis, I made the choice at the time to not tell anyone I had found a lump or that I would be going through tests, etc. My family and friends received the news after I was diagnosed. I vowed that I would never do that again. I immediately let Bobby know, though he knew something was up because of the look of fear in my eyes. After the initial shock wore off, I was able to sleep...well, more than I expected, anyway.  

First thing Thursday morning, I called my GYN to schedule an appointment. When I explained the situation to the wonderful lady on the other end of the phone, she said, "He's going to want an ultrasound."  Yep! She scheduled me for an ultrasound first thing Friday morning and a visit with the doctor immediately following. Great! I was all set. But, I had 24 hours to wait. Have I mentioned that I don't do waiting very well. I kept busy with work and household responsibilities. I'll spare you the details but as the day went on, things started to change a bit. Things changed enough that I began to believe that, based on my symptoms, this might not be cancer, but a case of overachieving ovaries. Could it be possible that I went through menopause 2+ years ago but things started up again? Could I be "lucky" enough to have the opportunity to go through menopause, not once, but twice?! It was looking that way - that's good news!

When Friday morning came around, I got up early and headed to town. All went smoothly - I quickly found a good parking spot, I actually arrived at the office door before it was even unlocked. When they opened a few minutes later, I was checked in quickly and then escorted to the ultrasound waiting area. For anyone who hasn't had an ultrasound, the techs are not permitted to provide you with the results. The doctor has to deliver that news. Once everything was done, the very sweet tech simply said, "I got some really good pictures for the doctor."  It's kind of difficult to interpret anything from that but I remained optimistic. I headed back out to the main waiting room. I didn't have to wait long before they called me back to see the doctor. I chatted with the kind nurse, she took my vitals, we discussed my history, etc. As she's typing her notes into the system, I look around the room and I noticed that the counter across from me held off the tools necessary for a biopsy. Yay!  Again, this was not a surprise to me. I told Bobby the night before that I expected a biopsy whether the ultrasound showed anything or not. If it did, I would need to have that tissue tested. If didn't show anything, they would want to be safe and would test the tissue to see if anything came back. Sometimes it's not always fun being right.  The nurse wrapped up and a few minutes later my fabulous doctor joined me. Bless him, he started off by saying, "You've really even through it, haven't you?"  Yes, it's been an interesting few years. I'll spare you the rest of the small talk and get to the good part. The ultrasound was clear. He didn't see anything that concerned him. He said that there was thickening of the endometrial lining but that was expected with the Tamoxifen. He then officially broke the news that a biopsy was imminent. He advised that a prophylactic hysterectomy wasn't recommended but that he would likely be doing a D&C in the not so distant future. So much for 2017 being procedure-free. 

The biopsy was not very pleasant but, thankfully, it was over in a couple of minutes. We should get the results back by Wednesday. Of course our hope is that it comes back negative, as we expect it to. If you have any prayers left to spare, whisper a quick one for negative biopsy results. If they do come back with any abnormalities, I expect that I'll be having a hysterectomy rather than a D&C.  We will accept whatever comes next and meet it head on. 

I'm reminded that this is our new norm. Once a cancer patient, always a cancer patient. 

I'll keep you posted on results and next steps. 

Love to all!

Andee 

Looking back on 2016

It's December tomorrow...DECEMBER, PEOPLE! What the heck?!
I was answering some questions about my upcoming procedures today and it hit me. This time last year I was trying to mentally prepare for 12 months of reconstruction work. It seemed so daunting at the time. It hasn't been easy, in fact, it's probably been the most physically challenging part of my cancer journey so far. But here I am, just 21 days from the final steps in the year-long process. The key is keep looking forward, don't focus on the challenge of the moment, but on the goal at the end.
I don't bore you with a long narrative...not right now, anyway. So here is 2016 in summary.

• January 11 - surgery 1 - release the lattisimus dorsi muscle to increase blood flow prior to moving it
• February 1 - surgery 2 - move the muscle (with some skin) from back to chest on the left side. tissue expanders implanted on both sides.
• March - September - tissues expansion - saline added to expanders every 2 weeks.
• September 26 - surgery 3 - tissue expanders removed and replaced with implants
• December 21 - surgery 4 - multiple procedures including tattooing, fat grafting and some surgical adjustments
• Also
• DRAINS - have I mentioned how much I loathe those things?
• Scar tissue
• Seroma
• Buckets of fluid
• Physical Therapy
• ASTYM
• Cancer Scare
• Physical challenges
• Low points
• Upswings

All that for some Frankenboobies.

 

I'm often asked if I would go through it all again. HECK YES! All of the procedures have been tough but the end result is worth it. Though more invasive, the process has a better success rate than other options. I would go through all of it again without hesitation!

 

 

Back soon!

Love to all,

Andee

This is so not funny...no, it is...wait...no it's not

Short post tonight. I'm working on a PT post but it's not done. 

Tonight's topic is related to my ever expanding chest and the lack of feeling after surgery. I have a real fear that I'm going to injure myself if I'm not careful. I was flat chested for almost 2 years so I'm still getting used to the expander foobs.

This image keeps bouncing around in my head. 

Welcome to my world. 

Well...

There's no turning back now. My day will start @ 4:30ish. We'll deal with whatever I've forgotten to do and head to the hospital. I should be in surgery by 8:30 and it will take 2-3 hours. I'm sure family will post updates but I'll give you the virtual thumbs up myself as soon as I can. Probably when I'm in my room. 

I am as ready as I'm going to be. Say a prayer for me, would ya?  

Until tomorrow, love to all!

Andee

So here we are

What a weekend. I walked out of the office Friday and into medical leave...again. Thankfully the situation is a wee bit different this time around (though that will be its own post). I celebrated my 44th birthday surrounded by friends and family (except the many who were sick and loved me enough to keep away). I will spend today finalizing my pre-op chores and the real fun will begin tomorrow morning. Over the next 3 weeks I will have surgery number 12 and 13 (i think that's right), will spend 5 days in the hospital, be under general anesthesia for 10 hours, give or take, endure 4 drains (I LOATHE drains), have more scars, be a burden to my family for a few weeks...and for what? Not for boobs. I'm not going through all of this to  get a nice set (though my PS does fantastic work). It's not about vanity or feeling like a woman. I still go without the falsies and tell everyone my business. It's about getting something back. Cancer takes, and takes and takes. It has taken from me, it has taken from my family and friends, it has taken good people out of this world. I loathe cancer and everything it does. I'm going to endure this next phase of the journey and I shall not complain (except about the drains because I really hate those things). I don't want to look at the ugly scars cancer left behind. I don't want to be reminded of what was there and that it could come back. I want to make it through a day without being constantly reminded that I will forever consider myself a cancer patient. Cancer is my reality, like it is for countless others. You take victories where you can get them and I'm winning by taking my body back. Well, technically I'm not taking it back it's more like I'm renovating, but you get it. 😜

I will go through this phase of the journey just as I did the last one. By putting it out there in the hope that someone finds some comfort and knows that they are not alone, or to serve as a source of information for someone going down the same road. If you're just fascinated that I share my business or just plain nosey, that's ok too.  😀

I will provide FB updates tomorrow as I am able and I plan to post tomorrow night from my hospital bed. Family will be updating FB and/or the blog during the day so check both if you're interested. 

Let's do this!

Love to all

Andee 

Dirty Little Secrets: Part II

I'm baaack!

I know you've been eagerly awaiting the next post in the Dirty Little Secrets Series. Well, wait no more, here it is!

This post is a bit of a first. I'm on the patio next to the fire pit typing this with my bluetooth keyboard and my phone. No computer was used in the composition of this message.  I'm enjoying the lovely weather while watching the kids play, the dog bite his toenails and the cats are doing whatever the cats want to do. I could get used to this.

Back to the post. We covered two secrets in Part I, right? Ok, so here we go with...

Dirty Little Secret #3 - Guilt

You read that correctly. Guilt. It's a thing. Like I've mentioned before, when you're diagnosed you end up making friends with other cancer patients. As a result, in addition to the fear, you can also feel guilt. What would there be to feel guilty about? Well, as odd as it might sound, lots of things. For example, I felt a little guilty because I seemed to tolerate chemo pretty well. It wasn't easy or fun, by any means, but I saw some of my treatment friends experience every side effect under the sun and some of them are quite unpleasant. Of course, not everyone I came into contact with was a breast cancer patient so they were on a very different cocktail than I was. That doesn't make you feel any less guilty.  You can find yourself feeling guilty for having a strong support system. Not everyone has that, but everyone NEEDS it. My family was with me every step of the way. I didn't have to worry whether my husband and kids would eat while I was in bed for days at a time. My employer and my co-workers were so supportive. I can't imagine going through that experience and having to worry about any of those things. Sadly, many women do. You can feel guilty for not being "sicker". You see your friends get bad news and you feel guilt because you haven't.  You don't want bad news but you can feel guilty. It's bizarre.  I could go on and on but you get the idea. 

Dirty Little Secret #4 - I might miss being "flat"

Seriously! I know that I don't want to look at the Franken-chest for the rest of my life but a little part of me will miss being able to take "The Girls" off at the end of the day. Think about it, ladies. If you could remove yours when it was convenient, like before exercise, would you do it?  Be honest.
In my current state, I have choices. I can choose to go completely without, or pick a size. I currently have 2 options. I have a small set and a medium set. It's quite nice. I don't think I'm going to skip reconstruction but I will miss having options. I'll probably complain the first time I try to sleep on my stomach, but I'll get over it...if not, I just won't say anything aloud. It will be another Dirty Little Secret. ;-)

Good night sweet friends!

Love to all,

Andee

Dirty Little Secrets - Part I

Yes, I have some dirty little secrets.

SCANDALOUS!

Not really, because I'm just about as boring a human being as anyone has ever met. But, as often happens here on the blog, I'm going to share with you...my friends...the things I don't ever talk about. It's not about pride or anything like that. I just don't like to focus on the more challenging aspects of being a cancer patient. The treatment experience had its challenges but all of those were expected. The post-treatment world presents me with something new on a regular basis. I don't want anyone facing the Big C, in whatever form, thinking that treatment ends and life returns to normal. It's not awful, it's just different. I believe that attitude plays an even more important role after treatment but I find it more of a challenge to focus on the positive. That sounds much more depressing than it should. Let me explain.
Tonight we will cover two.

Dirty Little Secret #1 - Anxiety

It sneaks up on you. You find yourself stressing about all manner of things. I tend to get anxious about recurrence. I went through a phase a few months back where I thought about cancer every minute of every day. I'm not even exaggerating. It was a pretty dark period. When you have that level of anxiety it begins to take its toll on you physically. I would have moments in the day when I felt like I couldn't catch my breath. It felt as if someone wrapped a band around my chest and pulled it tight. It got a bit scary. At the time, I kept thinking "oh dear, it's in my lungs!". (For those who don't know, when breast cancer travels, it tends to go the brain, liver, bones or lungs). I "knew" it. The next time I saw my doctor I asked him about recurrence and what to look for, etc. We had a great talk and he put me at ease. I also put myself back in the mental space where I decided I would focus on what I could control and the rest would be in God's hands. The symptoms went away instantly.  INSTANTLY!

It happened again in the days leading up to my CT last week. As I mentioned, any sort of scan or test ramps up the worry. "Will they find something?" I had pain in my chest (surgical area, not heart), my neck was stiff, I felt a milder version of the "band around the chest" sensation I mentioned before. I realized this time that is was probably anxiety but that didn't make it go away. I received my results on Friday night and woke up on Saturday feeling like a whole new person.

I'm sure this cycle will repeat itself for the rest of my life. Each time I'm getting a little better and dealing with it. I can only speak for myself but I think this is probably quite normal. If you're dealing with it, talk about it, address it. Carrying it all around and trying to deal with it on your own might not be enough. I have a great husband who serves as my listener/therapist but I'm not afraid to go pro if I feel like it's necessary. If that happens, y'all would know about it.   ;-)

Dirty Little Secret #2 - Pain

I don't talk about this at all. In the past few days I've mentioned it to a couple of people but typically I just deal with it and accept that it is part of my life now. My surgical site, specifically my left side (the lymph node side) hurts. The site of incision is numb but the area under my arm and down my side hurts all day every day. It's tender to the touch, and by that I mean if I sleep on my left side for a lengthy period, I'll be sore for days. and sometimes it's just bad. For me, it's unpleasant and can be very painful but I don't need medication. I accept it and tolerate it. Most days aren't so bad but it's always there. Today it's achy and a mild burning pain. I'll spare you the technical explanation but nerves can be damaged during the mastectomy and about half of all women who have had a mastectomy will experience Post Mastectomy Pain Syndrome...yes it has a name. Though I had a bilateral mastectomy, I only have pain on the left. Thank you for small favors!

Remember, everything isn't perfect. Cancer sucks. Treatment sucks. Side effects suck. BUT

LIFE IS BEAUTIFUL!

Back tomorrow.

Love to all,

Andee

All is well...or is it?

At 11:30 last night I received notification that a new item had been added to my medical record.  Eek!

There is a lot of information there but the good news is that my heart is in the right place. Really. And apparently it is "grossly unremarkable". I gotta admit, that hurts a little.  

Anywaaaay...

So from what I can tell everything (in the area scanned) is as it should be EXCEPT the artery they were checking. (They really should send a Radiologist with the message).  I'm eager to hear from my surgeon but reading the results makes me concerned that she's going to say that my only option is going to be the 20 hour procedure. If that's the case, I'll have to take some time to think about that. Stay tuned.  

Love to all

Andee

What would you do?

Hello friends!
As you might imagine, I've had several conversations about the reconstruction plan over the past few days. I've received a lot of sympathetic looks, some grimaces and many folks asking if I was really going to go through with it. At this point, yes, I'm going through with it. I made some decisions early on in anticipation of having reconstruction done. Though I did consider skipping reconstruction after learning the details, I got over it. I will push through and rebuild because, Lord knows, I don't want to spend the rest of my hopefully long life looking at the chest only Frankenstein could love. It's not vanity, it's about feeling semi-normal. Mostly it's about having my clothes fit right. You have no idea how goofy I feel when I'm not wearing the fakes. I don't care that I'm flat. I care that women's clothes draw attention to the fact that I'm flat (lumpy or inverted is more like it....eek!) because there's extra fabric to make room for the girls. I was not a fan of looking like a 10 year old wearing my mom's shirts.

Ok, back on topic. Most of the people I've had any lengthy conversations with about this have said that they don't think they'd go through with it. I find that interesting. I think I have an idea why it's so easy for everyone to say they would skip the procedure. Wait...first let me remind you that I did go through a period when I was aggressively stating that I might not get it done. I wrote about it early on. I got over it. Yes, women's bodies are objectified and there's too much focus on "saving 2nd base" when it should be about saving lives. Let me give you my perspective now. I want two things. First, I want to feel like a whole person and, second, I don't want such a vivid reminder that I had cancer every dang time I get out of the shower. Imagine having to lock the bathroom door every time you change clothes because if anyone walks in on you by accident, you'll cause them to have nightmares for the rest of their life. I understand that they will forever look like FrankenBoobies, but I'm OK with that. I will add the scars to my ever-growing collection and come out smiling on the other side. Plus, I have to do this for my fellow pink ladies. If I don't go through it then what in the world will I blog about?  :-)  Once again, it's a public service.

I'm off to bed. We can talk again tomorrow.

Love to all,
Andee

Let's Talk About Surgery

...and here we go!

As I said, I met with the plastic surgeon on Thursday. The office staff was great and the doctor was fabulous!  They spent a lot of time with me...I mean a lot...discussing options and answering my questions. There are several options for reconstruction. In the interest of time (and relevance) I will only cover the 2 options for which I am a candidate. If you want to know about the others, let me know and I'll post information in a separate post, with links to the details.

Here is how the rest of the post will work. I will take the time to type, at length, the procedures and how they were described to me, including length of procedure and recovery time. I will also post links to sites which will provide diagrams and general information about the procedures including length of procedure and recovery time. I'll tell you now, the numbers I was given vary quite a bit from the standards. From what I can tell, the difference is the fact that I had radiation. I could be completely wrong there but that does introduce some additional complications for this whole process.

Surgery Preparation

For reasons which will become clear with the review of procedures, the first step in this process will be to have a CT scan to ensure that blood flow is good to the muscle that will be moved. That will happen in the next couple of weeks.

When we get closer to the actual surgery (planned for January) I will have to start the preparation well in advance. I've had about 10 surgeries in my life so preparing for surgery is not new to me. The preoperative bathing instructions for this procedure are real. Not because of what needs to be done but because of the length of time I will have to do it. I will have to start the process 2 weeks prior to the procedure. In addition to the Hibiclens, I will also have to use Bactroban Nasal Ointment for a week prior to surgery. This is an effort to help minimize the risk of a MRSA infection. Infection is, obviously, a big concern with these procedures.

OPTION #1 - Free DIEP Flap Reconstruction

This procedure uses a flap of skin, fat and blood vessels - Deep Inferior Epigastric Perforators - to reconstruct the breast(s). There are positives and negatives with this procedure. For me, the negatives outweighed the positives so this was not the procedure I selected. Let's do a bulleted list for this one, shall we?

• Only a single procedure is required. (PRO)
• Bonus tummy tuck (PRO)
• My plastic surgeon does NOT do this procedure and there is only one PS in Kentucky that does enough of these procedures to make her comfortable to refer me to him. She said you want someone who does a lot of these, not anyone who "dabbles". The success rate for someone who does a lot of these is about 95%.  (CON)
• The surgery itself would take 20-25 hours. You read that correctly. (CON CON CON CON ) The information on the "standard" shows less time but she said for cases like mine it could take this long. She said the shortest time she'd seen was 14 hours. I'm not interested in being under anesthesia that long - neither 14 NOR 20+ hours.
• If you want to learn more detail about this procedure, take a look at this...
  
  DIEP Flap Information - TownsendMajors.com

She offered to refer me to the other plastic surgeon for a consult, but I graciously declined. That leaves with me with one option...well, one option other than choosing to skip reconstruction completely. I considered that for a minute but I have decided to move forward.

OPTION #2 - Lattissimus Dorsi Flap Reconstruction

Here we are. The information on the "winning" procedure. I am not terribly excited about this procedure BUT my outlook has improved in the past 24 hours.  I've watched a series of videos on the procedure and at the end of one them, the doctor interviews the patient and she discussed her pain and recovery time and her experience wasn't bad. I typically recover pretty quickly from surgery so I'm hoping the same may be true for me. Her situation was different because she had her mastectomy and reconstruction at the same time. It still makes me feel better about the whole thing. We'll just have to see what happens for me.

First I'll have to provide you with a little bit of background information. My reconstruction options and the experience will be a bit different because of radiation. They told me from the very beginning that I would have to delay reconstruction for at least 1 year after radiation because of what it does to the skin. I mistakenly thought that my skin held up well and that meant that reconstruction wouldn't be too challenging. I was wrong. How your skin looks doesn't matter. Radiation changes your skin at the cellular level. It may look normal, other than being a little tan, but it most definitely is not. To give you a better idea of what we're talking about, the doctor told me that if we were to proceed with the placement and filling of the expanders without doing the flap procedure, the skin (on my left side) would simply split open. No exaggeration and it's 100% sure to happen. Ew. I mean really, EWWWWWWW. Even with the flap procedure, she warned me that my skin will open up but she'll be able to put a few stitches in and send me on my way. This could possibly happen multiple times during the expander phase. I got a little nervous at this point and asked her if she had ever had to stop the process completely and she said no - not yet. :-)

 Doctor and nurse friends, please don't judge my feeble attempts to explain this correctly. Know that I am including a link to a page that explains it correctly. Now, on to the procedure itself. My plastic surgeon expects that procedure (for the left side only) to take approximately 6 hours. I assume that means that by adding the work on the right side, I'm looking at up to 8 hours of surgery.
The Latissimus Dorsi muscle is the muscle in your back that runs from just below your shoulder blade down towards your hip. They will make an incision in my back, release the muscle from it's current position (cut it out) while leaving it attached to its blood supply. It will NOT be cut completely free. There will be a band of muscle that stays attached and the whole thing will be pulled around from my back to my chest. They will cut open my existing scar then pull the lat muscle through, situate it, and sew it in. Once this lovely procedure is done, they will insert the empty expander and stitch me up. This is a very oversimplified description but you get the idea. I will wake up with 3 drains (you know how much I loved those things the last time around- SARCASM ALERT), 2 in the front and one in the back. I'll also have a catheter in my back for pain management. I'm not sure how long that will stay in. I will be in the hospital for 2 days. I will keep the front drains in for at least a week but the back drain will stay in for 2-3 weeks. Did I mention how much I hated the drains the last time? Anyway, recovery time is estimated to be 8 weeks. If you want the professional explanation, here you go. There are diagrams and everything!

Latissimus Dorsi Flap Reconstruction - TownsendMajors.com

After surgery (and recovery) I'll get a wee bit of a break. They have to wait for my surgical site to heal and the new tissue to work its magic. The increased blood flow will improve the skin situation but we have to wait and let it do its thing. I will have to wait approximately 6 months before they can start expanding the expanders. When that process starts we'll get a better idea of how long it's going to take. They will gradually fill the expanders and we'll see how my skin holds up. Like I said, she expects to have to stitch me up a few times but she says we'll be successful, even if the going is slow. It will likely take a few months, at least. I've heard that the expander experience isn't so bad and I've heard from others that it was excruciating. As always, I'll plan for the worst but expect the best.
After the expander experience, we'll then plan the actual implant surgery. That surgery will consist of an outpatient procedure with small incisions. I'll go home the same day and have a 2 week recovery. OH, and NO DRAINS!!
After the implant procedure, I have to wait about 3 more months before we can proceed to the tattooing phase.
I told you it was going to take a year...no kidding.  We are going to start in January so we can try to wrap it all up in a single calendar year. That sounds really far away but I have a little over 2 months to get mentally, physically and generally prepared. This is a significant improvement over the 2 1/2 weeks between diagnosis and mastectomy, so I won't complain. It seems like an eternity.

I think that covers the basics. If you have questions, feel free to ask. As always, I'm willing to answer.
Whew! I made it! 

As always, I will keep you updated on the process and planning and, when the time comes, the really real truth about the procedure and the recovery.

Bye for now.

Love to all,

Andee