Too Much to Live For!

Chip & I had a wonderful opportunity to play at the Philadelphia Folk fest this past weekend! It was a dream come true, and so much fun! Everyone we met was tremendously kind, and it restored my faith in humanity! I DID NOT MEET ONE MEAN PERSON THERE! I can't wait to do more fun things like this in my lifetime....I just want to be rid of the cancer and just get on with living! I have too much to live for to let this stop me for very long!

Today I visited one the plastic surgeons affiliated with Doylestown Hospital. The meeting took 2 hours! It was quite a lot of information to take in....I definitely wish I had taken a friend with me, but I did okay. I was able to better focus on processing the information. Sometimes when I am with my girlfriends we get silly...but that's only sometimes, right girls??? There were, I think, five procedures I was told I could get at Doylestown. After hearing about them, I asked many, many, MANY questions (I know...very out of character for me, right???) and, so far, I have narrowed it down to two options. One being "once and done" (you are in the operating room for about 8 hours, but when you wake up it's 'done' basically, save for a trip or two back to "tweak" things if needed....) The other operation being I guess what you may call less invasive, an easier operation, takes less time to get back on your feet after, except afterwards you have to go in every week and get "tweaked" until you get to the size you want to be. I am keeping it simple here for obvious reasons....the main reason being I don't want to gross anyone out! You can always Youtube these operations.... seriously, I watched one at the docs today; it was very interesting! I wouldn't go eating popcorn during viewing or anything like that, I mean it wasn't that entertaining but it was cool!

While there I asked the plastic surgeon if he could remove a tiny mole on my face (kinda like a two-for-one op. I guess) and he said, "Maybe at a later time." He would only be focusing on my chest during the operation! The nerve! I even had a coupon!!!!!!! (HA HA Of course I am kidding!) (Anyway my dad would have been proud of me for asking for a two-fer!)

So tomorrow I head to the regular surgeon at Fox Chase, the one who would remove the cancer..the plastic surgeon would go in after him (they are both present for the operation) and he - the plastic surgeon - would reconstruct what was left of my chest, perhaps grafting some skin and/or muscle from another part of my body...

It is all pretty gross but also to me really amazing that they can even do this for me! I feel scared but very, very fortunate that I even have choices......many women do not have any choice.....

I am looking at an overnight stay in the hospital, maybe two nights, with the first being in I.C.U. That doesn't really thrill me, but the nurse said it was so I'd have round the clock care...

Anyway I will let you all know what happens at Fox Chase tomorrow. I'm excited to see this place, I've heard many good things about it....