Chapter 23: Chestivus for the Rest of us!

It has been a LONG time since I’ve put my thoughts into words. Partially due to minimal updates on the cancer front, and partially due to motorcycle season going into full-swing. When I’m not working, I’m riding. Work hard – play hard…no rest for the wicked.
Well, now motorcycle hibernation season is upon us, and I finally have some cancer-related news worth sharing!
Mayo contacted me this morning with a surgical date for my breast reconstruction. I will be going back under the knife on 12/26/24. This comes about 10 months after my mastectomy, which was on 02/29/24. Just writing this brings up a lot of emotion for me. I’m quite literally catching tears with my sleeve as I type this. So much time has passed, I started to feel as if this whole ordeal was behind me…all while knowing full well it wasn’t over. Here’s my reality check!
I grew accustomed to life post-mastectomy. I was back on my motorcycle just 4 weeks after surgery. I went back to work after the mandatory 6 week recovery period. I could have physically returned to work earlier due to my speedy healing, but legally I couldn’t return to work without medical clearance…so, I bummed around the house per doctor’s orders.
Life pretty much returned to normal since my recovery. I jumped right back to work without missing a beat. Brian and I took quite a few motorcycle trips, the big one being a loop around Lake Michigan in July. Oh, what an epic trip it was! The only thing I had to contend with was (is) my freak boobs, but I found a work-around for that. Let me explain the freak boobs. During my mastectomy, a tissue expander was placed in the area where my breast had been removed. Every couple of weeks, I would go into the doctor’s office to have my expander inflated until I was satisfied with the size. It took a few months, but I finally got to a size I like….which is quite a bit larger than my original size. Keep in mind, I only had one tit cut off, so my other breast is still intact. My healthy breast doesn’t require a tissue expander, because it already contains enough breast tissue and malleable skin to accommodate an implant. At the point of reconstructive surgery, the surgeon will place implants of appropriate sizes in both breasts to make them symmetrical. But, for the time being, I have one tiny tit, and one huge tit….and it’s EXTREMELY noticeable. In spite of my best efforts to not give a fuck, I grew insecure about the size difference. To combat my insecurity, I decided to purchase a couple of bras large enough to fit my giant boob…and I cut out the push-up padding from a few of my old bras to fill the empty void on my tiny tit side. It’s not perfect, but it’s passable! I’m able to walk TALL with my shoulders back, rather than being hunched over trying to hide my chest. But hey, come Dec. 26th, I won’t have to stuff the tiny side of my bra anymore!
So, here we go…about to embark on the next chapter of my cancer journey. Keep it metal! 🤘😎🤘