Today I share with you an image of my 100% confirmed breast cancer free body. Day 4 post-op marked the day I received confirmation from my breast surgeon that the tissue removed during surgery was ‘all clear’. Hooray! It’s the news we were all hoping for and it means that I’m at risk of around 1% in my lifetime of ever being diagnosed with breast cancer. In a family where breast cancer diagnosis doesn’t come as a surprise anymore, this news was gold!!
So with that out of the way nice and early, it was another eventful day in recovery, resting, napping, chatting with friends and being cared for by genuinely caring nursing staff.
Today I committed to ensuring that I would sleep in again, so I’m pleased to say that despite waking up in the early hours of the morning again, I stuck it out in bed with my new method of nanna-napping and successfully managed to stay in bed again for that extra rest needed for recovery. Yay for me!!
I showered this morning, something that’s an exciting part of the day. The reason it’s exciting is because I can be relatively independent, other than the initial strip down. Getting myself out of the compression vest is tough, so I will admit that I use the nurse ‘call’ button for assistance here. It must look really funny, me standing there like a 2 year old waiting to be undressed for my daily shower. Thankfully I can squeeze my butt cheeks hard enough together to wedge them through the top of the vest, so the vest can come up over my hips rather than me trying to get it over my head.
I had another visit from the physio today, he was very kind and gave me some additional exercises to do now that I’m a little more mobile. He even gave me a list of a few lower body stretches I could incorporate into my day. It’s not much, but every little bit helps. I did a little happy dance!
I’ve included a short video of my upper body regime. It’s relatively boring, but it’s one small step towards a full recovery.
Leigh and the girls came in again today, but they came in really late. It was late because of some bad news from our neighbour, who was responsible enough to find an issue this afternoon outside of our house! Unfortunately our second car, which we park safely on the street, sustained some damage which is either the result of an a$$hole driving past and knocking off the mirror, or some low-life vandalising the car by pulling the mirror off.
Would you believe that in addition to this, Leigh’s mums car (also parked on the street because she’s selling it) was also damaged. Two mirrors taken off the cars in the street – you can imagine how happy I was to hear that news!!
Darn it!! Two bloody mirrors to replace, which despite a Police report being filed and them NOT being damaged by us, are now our responsibility to fix by filing 2 separate insurance claims with 2 separate excesses to pay. ARGH!!!! It’s not the first time our car has been damaged when parked on the street. I seriously think it’s time to install a camera on the outside of our house to keep an eye on the area where the car is parked!!
I didn’t burn up too much energy worrying about something I can’t control, so when the girls arrived with Leigh, I chilled out with Libby watching The Block, while Leigh played a game of Yahtzee with Layla on the floor.
Libby and I took a selfie as we chilled in bed together!!
What I loved most about their visit today is the normality. The girls propped themselves up for a kiss and cuddle, Libby bounced into the bed beside me and as she tucked her legs in under the bedsheets, she just moved the drain cords out of the way so she could snuggle up with me. The fact that I’d just had major surgery didn’t phase her or even get mentioned. I absolutely loved it!!
Our girls keep me grounded……because life goes on normally without nipples and breasts.
This is our new normal.
Yas xxxx