Week 41: Thursday 31 August - Thursday 07 September 2017
So this past week has been an amazing hive of activity... I have loved it 😀😀😀.
Met up with many friends, family and work colleagues over different days, and done a lot of contemplation about life in general.
In true Linz fashion, everything comes with a risk assessment and a cost / benefit analysis. I am back 😀.
From taking on shoddy pension advisors with a straight talking email, to wading in to relationship issues, through to making up a golden Wedding celebration DVD as a quick favour, and getting up to speed with work stuff... I feel like I am back with my spider web brain 😀😀😀😀😀😀.
Chemo feels like it has truly left me, and I now feel amazing. Still tired as ever, but more on form than anytime in the last 9 months.
Of course, going into work where one of the more irrepressible lovely ladies asked to feel my boobs just made me laugh, but there is certainly never going to be any tension whenever we can make jokes. Of course completely un-pc and breaks all codes of conduct... but in tough times, sometimes a bit of light hearted banter is required 😀.
My hair has gone from a grey/white fuzz to actually being quite dark... goodness knows what it will actually end up like once it starts getting to any length... quite intrigued like some kind of weird science experiment!
Finally got date through for my next surgery.... the oophorectomy is now scheduled for 02 October, with pre op assessment on 14 September. On upside, everything is progressing... other hand... surgical menopause and murderous tendencies in the immediate offing! 😱😱😱
Still can't stop showing off my flat tummy to anyone and everyone who is interested... and even to those who are not... but I am so proud of it 😀😀😀.
A few people have made jokes about how they would quite like to get a free tummy tuck on the NHS too... am not quite sure how to respond to that, as my initial reaction is to say "what, you want cancer too?" But then I realise that that probably is not the best answer - and people are just being nice about my silver linings 😀.
I am also decidedly loving all the compliments I have been given - actually not so much about how I look (although they are nice too), but also about how I appear very much full of life, vivacious and happy.... (of course maybe I was a really miserable person before lol).
It's also nice to be told that I rock the Sinead O'Connor look... but to be honest I am pretty sure that I look pretty intimidating should I choose to do so... maybe going back to work I should keep the shaved head look for a while...
On another note, I am quite pleased as overall, I am down half a stone since initial diagnosis. And hopefully healthy weight loss will continue. The upside of having a tummy tuck and being so sick in hospital is that my tummy has physically shrunk, and the tightness of the tummy tuck basically means that my tummy can't bloat to accommodate big plates of food anymore.... so eating little and often literally means don't have much of an appetite any more!
I still have to go and see plastic surgeon to see how much swelling has gone down, and I also have to be fitted to establish new bra size... but all good things.... the only down side is that I have now been told that it might be 6 months before I get my revision surgery, as they really like to make sure everything has settled before doing any more work. Which does not fit neatly into my planned timescales to be honest, so may see what surgeon says when I see him in a few weeks time.
And not that I am hoping that I do need extra revisions to top my breasts up... but the potential for liposuction to then thin down my thunder thighs does have some appeal now... 🤔.
Joking aside, it would just be great to be able to get the final procedures done so I don't have to keep going back for operation over the next 12 months!
In relation to wounds, they are progressing beautifully according to my nurse... I have now progressed to steroid cream (hopefully no side effects as per tablets for chemo!), although to me they still look like bloody craters. But I have to persevere with changing dressings every day... I just want them to seal over so I can start swimming and getting back to some kind of physical health and resilience!
(Patience is a virtue which I clearly do not have!!!)
One of the best comments actually came from my niece last week... "Auntie, I wasn't meaning to stare down your top, but I was looking at the line on your chest. Your surgeon's done quite a good job, hasn't he?" At first I was confused... and then I realised that she meant my cleavage 😀😀😀. Small things, but made me chuckle.
The next few weeks brings more planned visits to the office, babysitting relatives where I can fall asleep on the couch, helping to advise on decluttering a friend 😀, and generally trying to improve fitness. Managed to make bike a stationery bike to work lower body, I have to get ass in gear and do more physio exercises, and hopefully work up to longer dog walks too. I really fancy getting back out on my roller skates... but fear that I may be tempting fate and a body cast if I try to be too adventurous too soon lol.
So... exciting times ahead on many fronts. But given what I have been through, life is definitely worth living to the max... so that's what I intend to do 😀😀😀.
Till next time peeps... xxx
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