I made the phone call to get a date for surgery.  I spent most of the night thinking about all the information Dr. Lu gave us yesterday.  It took a lot of looking at the options and weighing out the pros and cons for each option... there is the option of implants (silicone) or using my own tissue either from my tummy or my back.  With the unknown of whether I will need radiation it is hard to know what is the best way to go.  It would be best to have implants if I were going to have radiation since I would not want the tissue that is moved from other parts of my body to be radiated and possibly damaged from that radiation.  BUT if they find I do not need radiation I would much prefer to use my own tissue for the reconstruction.  Decisions....decisions....decisions!

I have decided to go with the implants to start.  That will allow us time figure out if I am having radiation or not.  I ultimately want to be cancer free!!  So I will do all I need to do in order to GO FOR THE CURE!!!  With this decision it means that I will have a shorter surgery but it also means I will have at least one more surgery if not two in the end.  This surgery will be a double mastectomy with the reconstruction consisting of expanders that will be in the place where the implants will ultimately go.  These expanders give the body a chance to make room for the implants.  Once I have the implants for a while and radiation (if needed) is completed I can opt to go back into surgery and have the implants replaced with my own tissue.  This recovery will take 4 to 6 weeks so I will most likely choose to do this next summer to have all the time to recover. 

I will be relieved once I get the call with the date for this first surgery.  I will have a 2 day stay in the hospital and recover from this one in about 1-2 weeks.  I will let everyone know when I know!