What kind of Boobs?

On Monday I had my first meeting with my reconstruction surgeon, Dr. Chang. This time the drive to Houston was beautiful, a few fluffy clouds, but no rain and no problems. Well there was the accident in the Galleria area, but it is Houston and that area is one of the worst in the city. There was only one problem with the slow down; I really, REALLY, had to pee. I am still surprised that I managed to hold it until getting to the hospital. I have never been so excited in my life to get to the Mays Clinic. The waiting room for reconstructive surgery is on the same floor as the breast center, 5th floor, but in a quiet corner away from all the mayhem of the breast center itself. The view is stunning in this area. You can see all the way to Reliant Stadium which dwarfs its predecessor the Astrodome. The Dome. The former eighth wonder of the world; now fighting for its life, literally the city is considering tearing it down. If the city does tear it down it would not be the first, or the last, in a long line of landmarks that the city of Houston has destroyed in the name of progress. There were a few other patients in the waiting room, one talking very loudly on his cell phone. “Can you explain to the court that we are facing a 12 hour surgery tomorrow? Maybe they will understand…How much is it going to cost us to get out of this?!!” Unfortunately I was called back, just as the conversation started to get interesting. At this appointment instead of just getting undressed from the waist up, they have you get completely naked. I was not expecting that. They do give you little underwear to wear which were obviously designed for much larger people, along with the gown, booties and other hospital garb. I really think that before my mastectomy surgery I need to go over to the Children’s Hospital complex and get some of their gowns. Maybe I should buy my own and carry it with me to appointments. When the nurse learned that I have elected not to do radiation therapy there was a minor disturbance in the hallway. I could hear people calling each other, and I braced myself for a visit from Dr. Bedrosian; but she never came. Dr. Campbell came to speak with me instead. He apparently is Dr. Chang’s fellow and was very good at explaining all of the surgical options to me. And there are a lot of options. Regular implants, sounds simple but not really, since this is reconstruction I have the option of getting silicone implants or the standard saline implants. This has been an option since 2006 when they finally disproved the whole hoopla surrounding the Dow Silicone breast implants – Connie Chung did a huge special report on the problems in 1992. There are then a variety of options using tissue from different parts of your own body; the back muscles, abdomen tissues, and butt tissues. If you elect to use the abdomen or butt tissue it is possible not to use implants at all. The downside is more scarring, much longer surgery, longer recovery time, and more possibility for things, such as infection, to go wrong. At this point I’m leaning towards straight silicone implants. If I don’t like them I can always change them, and if at some point I do need any radiation I can have them removed and then reconstructed using my own bodies tissue at that point. Now all I have to do is decide on the size. That decision can actually wait. After my mastectomy surgery, Dr. Chang will place expanders into the cavity created by the breast tissue. The expanders will remain in place for a few months to make sure that the cavity heals and is big enough for the implants. They will be pumped up, or inflated, to the size that the implants will be; then exchanged for implants. Anytime while they are being expanded I can decide that they are big enough and then exchanged once the tissues heal. The drive home was as uneventful as the drive to Houston, actually more so since there was no accidents to contend with on the way home.