Sunday 19 May 2013

Getting it off your chest

Jolie: Considered the odds
and made an informed choice
Breast cancer treatments, and specifically mastectomies, have been in the press a lot this week.

It was prompted by Angelina Jolie's very well-written piece in the New York Times, in which she explained her decision to have preventative surgery after discovering that she had one of the BRCA genes that give a much heightened chance of developing breast and ovarian cancer.

However, as she also points out - and which has largely been missed in the wider reporting of this story - the genetic BRCA cases account for a tiny proportion of breast cancer diagnoses as a whole.

So while it is true that carrying the BRCA gene increases your risk to between 50-90% chance of developing one of the several different breast cancer diseases, the vast majority of breast cancers are random and sporadic and down to sheer (bad) luck.

Angelina's piece is very honest and does allude to the complexity of the surgery and the mental and physical impact that mastectomy can have. It is not a straightforward process; it is protracted, painful and, while the cosmetic outcomes can be very good, your breasts will never look or feel the way that they did.

Indeed, they could look better! Mine probably do. But I would be lying if I said the implants feel natural under my skin and I'm not conscious of them every single day. Of course, not everyone has implant reconstruction and many use their own fat and body tissue. This probably feels quite different to implants but it is still a very complicated and uncomfortable process.

Which is why I get REALLY annoyed when people make mastectomies sound like they're simple or straightforward. It's bloody insulting. Especially when, like mine, it was a life or death necessity not a choice.

Heaton: Shut yer cakehole
Take, for example, Michelle-Liberty-X-Heaton. I really do wish that woman would shut her big shiny face. And, yes, I know she's had a preventative double mastectomy; we ALL know, it's all she ever talks about. She's become a cancer-free-rent-a-quote, resurrecting her flagging career by constantly harping on about her, and others', 'media mastectomies'.

And was it really necessary to give interviews from her hospital bed, bleating on about how easy it all was? Maybe it was for you, love, but I'm nine months in and still not finished! She seriously gets on my tits ... Grrr.

*deep breaths*

On the plus side, however, it does allow the breast cancer charities to stay in the public eye; they just need to ensure that the information given remains realistic and objective.

One in eight women will get diagnosed with breast cancer and the vast majority of cases will have no genetic link. So stay vigilant and check. I would never have thought I could get breast cancer at 38, but I did, and I'm hearing more and more cases of women in their 20s and 30s.

That's not to scaremonger but please be aware that the risk is there and that you don't need to have a family link for breast cancer to occur. Once diagnosed though, the treatments are good ... and you might even get a perky new pair out of it!

Friday 10 May 2013

The icing on the cake

Saw one of my breast surgeons at the 'Marsden today and she was very pleased with my "excellent result". So pleased, in fact, that she dragged in another colleague to have a look.

Mr P: Boobs and cake. What's not to like?
To be fair, my boobs do look great. Far more balanced in shape than I had anticipated and quite natural in texture due to the earlier fat transfer.

The next and final stage is nipple reconstruction. A lot of people don't bother with this but I really don't need to decide until I go back again for my review in eight weeks.

Nipple-wise, they can either create one out of scar tissue or mould a prosthetic one that you stick on with skin glue, presumably for special occasions ...

The argument for creating one from scar tissue is (a) it's permanent and (b) it looks realistic "from a distance". Now, call me old fashioned, but I generally only display my nipples in close proximity, so I'm not sure that this is a massive selling point. However, it would be nice to complete the process and feel that I'm finally finished.

Mr P. and I still wanted to mark the occasion though. And so we did, with coffee and cake ... OK, quite a few cakes, care of the Hummingbird Bakery.

It was also an important day for another reason. Eight years ago today, I lost my lovely Dad to bowel cancer. It simultaneously feels like both a short time and a long time, but I think of him often.

So here's to you, Dad. Thumbs up! x

Friday 3 May 2013

"I must, I must, I must improve my bust!"

And I finally have! Yesterday, I was back for surgery at the 'Marsden for the fourth time in less than 10 months to get my implants. Even one of the day ward nurses commented: "I recognise you. You've been here loads!"

It's true I have. Never mind the surgery but all the assessment, review, counselling and nursing consultations have been pretty numerous.

It was quite nice though to see my surgical team again, Gerald Gui and Ana Agusti, who have looked after my case for exactly a year. They also brought another member of the team in pre-op to assess my 'breast volume'.

I thought this was quite funny and asked him, "so doctor, your job is to look at naked breasts and guess what size they are?" He looked a bit embarrassed and then, when Mr P. asked for a business card, the poor bloke didn't know what to say!

It's been a right old 'Carry On'
but Mr P and I are pleased with the outcome
However, he obviously judged well because I'm very pleased with both the sizing match and the symmetry in my clothes. I really don't think anyone else would know the difference but it does mean that I don't have to pad out 'lefty' any more and can start wearing my nice bras again instead of mastectomy ones.

That said, I have received a few texts from people asking how it went, including a very direct one: "Let's see 'em then!" All in good time, ladies, all in good time ... ;-)

I'm still very taped up and sore. The left hand side is particularly painful as I hadn't had surgery there before, but both sides are very tender. I can lift my arms up above my head but can't reach up yet so will definitely need next week off work to recover before I brave the Tube for my post-op assessment next Friday (10th).

Anyway, Mr P is staying with me today to help me do things and the weekend will see my boobs' first outing (not literally) at a big family gathering in Oxford, with all of Mr P's extended clan.

It's going to be quite a celebration.