A Slight Change in Plans!
Valentine’s Day brought us a little change in plans. In fact, within hours after I hit “send” with my update, we had a three-way Doctor confab and decided to postpone radiation for 3 weeks and do a little surgery instead. It is really a good thing. I had surgery, Thursday, February 24, to replace those @#*&ing (pardon my own little oscar F bomb) expanders with permanent implants. I am recovering nicely at home.
When I was at my plastic surgery appointment on Valentine’s Day, Dr. DaLio mentioned it would be great if we had three more weeks, so we could get the implants in and be done with surgery now. The alternative was keeping the expanders in until Fall. Just hearing the word, Fall, got my engines going and we got on the phone to the radiologist and oncologist. After that first call it was decided to just leave the schedule as it was since we were ready to start Wednesday. Well, you all know me, and the die had been cast, the line had been set, the eggs were cooling, the fat lady had sung . . . I had a bee in my bonnet now about the thought of being DONE with surgery so I went into Advertising Account Executive mode as only I can. Following some further social networking among my oncologist, radiologist and plastic surgeon, and guess what? Now, they were all in agreement there was no risk in postponing radiation, and in fact, the outcome will most likely be better radiating with implants rather than the expanders. So we went full speed ahead with the change in plans.
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One of the reasons I chose Dr. Da Lio is that he has access to cohesive breast implants, better known as gummy bear implants. They are approved in Europe and Canada, but remain under study by the FDA. They are shaped in a more anatomically correct fashion than standard silicone or saline implants, don’t leak when cut and will, most likely, have less scar tissue build up after radiation. UCLA is part of a clinical study so I just needed to fill out a little paperwork and we were good to go. The little paper work turned out to be three legal documents so I had my attorney, Mr. Grossman, go over them with his fine tooth comb. Then, there were two 10 page questionnaires with unusual questions about lifestyle and reasons for the implants including “on a scale of 1 to 10 will gummy bears improve my dating life” and "on a scale 1 to 10 how is my health" — I chose excellent, of course!. Once the paperwork was completed, Dr. DaLio wanted to be sure we were completely comfortable with the gummy bears so he very generously offered Steve the opportunity to feel the implants “in situ.” While Steve was grateful for the offer, he politely declined, even though the Dr. insisted it was a “really great patient who wouldn’t mind.”
To hear more about these gummy bears click here for a quick take by Maura Tierney on Ellen DeGeneres. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rlpIMlR1P5U Very funny!
So that is how we came to postpone radiation and have surgery. It’s now 3 days since surgery and I am doing really well. Just 2 drains this time! Steve, Ella and Cody gave me a little rest today and even returned from Malibu with a banana milkshake for me (which goes well with gummy bears)!
Thank you to everyone who has called and emailed to see how my zapping is going. It will most likely start mid March. Thanks for all your positive thoughts. We are acceptng visitors so give us a holler and came by
