Only two weeks to go until my exchange surgery! I am so excited. Can’t wait to be on the other side of this thing. I’m looking forward to being finished. I report to the hospital at 7:30am, for a 9:30am surgery, on Tuesday, September 3rd.

Pre-op appointment

Met with Dr. M this afternoon for my pre-op appointment. Discussed a few more details, got my pictures taken, signed the familiar consent forms, got the don’t-take-these-meds sheet, had my blood drawn, and peed in a cup.

Here are a few of my final questions:

• Will I be required to wear any type of bra (compressions or underwire) after the exchange surgery? Should I purchase something? No. If any type of compression is needed it will be via ace bandage and dressings or a mastectomy bra that will be issued by the hospital.
• I have hypertrophic-ish spots on my incision scars from the mastectomy, should I use something special after the exchange to prevent this from happening? The lumpy scar tissue will be removed during the exchange surgery. Since the pockets are already created/expanded, there won’t be as much stress on the incisions going forward. Silicone sheets? That’s an option that will apply pressure to the incisions to keep them flat. We will revisit once they close.
• What about this ugly, scarred tissue from the area that was necrotic? Depending on how much skin is loose/available after the implants are placed, we may be able to remove the chunk now. Otherwise, a skin graft from the hip area is an option, but that would need to happen at a later time.
• And the most important question: will I have drains again? Yes. That wiped the smile off my face. Noooooooooooo! I was hoping I would never see a surgical drain again.

For my photo session today, I removed everything except my underpants. This is the third set of full body pics we’ve taken, but it was still weird. While standing on a pedestal I was thinking of this XKCD strip Lannis shared a little while ago and giggling. Where are my beads? I earned them!