Busy Busy! Work and Breast cancer events!

I can’t believe it has been 4ish weeks since my last post. Time flies when your having fun I guess! The hubby and I have been talking about this a lot lately – how quickly time passes by. For example today I am 8 weeks out of surgery (!!!), have been out of treatment for 9 months and Christmas is only 2 and a bit months away. Seriously. Make sure you take the time to enjoy all of lifes experiences because before you know it they are gone!

Anywho…I have seen my surgeon twice since the last post. I have almost half a litre in each of my expanders now and I still haven’t decided what size I want to be. It’s really hard to decide! You would think it would be easy and all you would have to say is “B-cup” or “C-cup” but we have learned it doesn’t really work like that. It depends on your body and frame and you have to decide on the what volume you like the look of not what they actually look like (at this point). They don’t look the same at all for now and we can’t decide if this is the right amount of fluid or not. I guess I will do one more fill and see how I feel. So this is where I stand now…

Left                  Right

180ml               120ml   < Time of surgery

240ml               180ml   < additional 60ml at first check up

300ml               270ml   < Additional 60ml in left and 90ml in the right

360ml               360ml   < Additional 60ml in the left and 90ml in the right

450ml               450ml    <additional 90ml in both

As you can see I now sit at 450ml in each. It’s quite a lot of fluid. My tissue expanders are only made to hold 550ml total. Apparently though she goes over quite frequently and it doesn’t harm them…

At one of these appointments she let me know that they had booked my surgery for November 23^rd. They don’t waste anytime at all. I asked her though to post-pone my next surgery until January. That way I will be eligible to collect EI again. On a good note the seroma I had a few weeks ago seems to have disappeared and fixed itself! I am really happy it went away…it was getting kind of annoying at times.

The CIBC Run for the Cure has a survivor’s parade every year at Banker’s Hall downtown. It is kind of a kick off for the run that takes place a couple weeks after and an event to bring awareness to the event. I didn’t go last year probably because of chemo and I wasn’t going to miss this year. It was so much fun! I hung out with some of my bc friends and met some new people. I really enjoy spending time with other survivors…it’s like it’s own little club and I am proud to be part of it. We frequently talk about how we are feeling, who is seeing what doctor and all the funny things that go along with lopsided breasts. It’s nice having the time to talk to people that don’t get sick of the topic!

This parade probably had about 200 – 300 survivors at it. AMAZING!!! There was one man in the mix, which was great because a lot of people don’t realize that men can get this disease also. So everyone gets to the event, registers, gets their white cowboy hat and pink t-shirt. Then they get in a line depending on how many years they have been a survivor. I was in the 0 – 5 group and they went all the way to 15+. After everyone is ready to go, we went down the escalator and stood in a large group in the middle of the foyer. We had a few famous guests that were there to speak and brought lots of tears so everyone involved and the people watching. Afterwards we filed outside onto Stephens avenue for a mini parade. It was a great time and I can’t wait to be part of it next year.

One more (exciting) thing that happened at the parade was the Pink Ribbon Pin-Up Calendar was released. They ended up changing me to January and it looks so great! All the ladies look gorgeous and it really is a great way to raise money and bring some awareness to the scars, women’s stories and life after. Make sure to buy yours before the end of December at Safeway stores across the country!

So the day after it was time to go back to work. I have now been back for a couple weeks and it’s been pretty good. I am still fighting some fatigue and nervous about pushing my body physically as I don’t know what I can handle. Thankfully I work with some great women that are super understanding and helping me lift bags and hold animals that I don’t feel confident doing so with. Thanks ladies!

This past Sunday was the CIBC Run for the Cure. The bald picture of me on my blog profile was taken last year at the same event. It is so much fun and anyone can participate because it is only 5km. I started getting ready for this the Wednesday before. I put some little pink caps on Kali’s nails – she didn’t mind them but AJ wasn’t too impressed. That night also happened to be PALS night at the Children’s…the kids LOVED her nails. So at 7am on Sunday a bunch of us met down at Southcentre to get ready for the walk. We had wigs, tattoos, necklaces, balloons and some beautiful jackets for all the dogs (8 of them) that my Mom made herself. People were taking pictures of the dogs left right and center. I have to admit they looked pretty cute! Thanks again to all my friends and family that came out and walked with us. Next year we will plan it a bit sooner and hopefully recruit more people and have some t-shirts made!