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

Prior to my Prophylactic Bilateral Mastectomy this week, I watched a beautiful video clip of a dear friend singing in the car with her children.  It was a truly beautiful thing to see.  Not only were the kids all singing and dancing in the car, their gorgeous mum was hitting the notes as she boogied with them.

It inspired me!

I’d recently convinced my girls to have a little dance in the car with me, however it didn’t really inspire, but it was funny.  Miss 7 head butted me by accident and instead of sympathy from both girls, little Miss 6 did what I can only describe as ‘cackled’.

When we returned home that night, the eve of my operation, I decided that it might be nice to ask the girls some questions about how they were feeling.  The little ‘interview’ process was funny and despite some wild and animated impersonations of their dad Leigh at the end, I have decided to share it with you today.

I truly hope you get as much out of their little rambling interview as I did.  I think both girls far exceeded their word count for the day as they both tried to keep the spotlight on themselves.

When the door bell rang in the background, it was two very beautiful friends visiting before the big day.  The girls eventually did come down stairs and I can assure you that no children were ‘pounded’ that night.

I hope you enjoy these uncut little snippets of our amazing girls.

What do you think?  Are they funny or what?  I especially loved Libby’s animation of what ‘Daddy’ might do and Layla’s ‘doorbell’ impersonation too.

Yas xxxx

Day 1 is a wrap!

I’m sharing my own personal journey here, however before you read my account, please don’t consider any of what I’m saying as an indication of what others may have been through themselves or what you might go through in your own journey.  Everyone has a different experience and every day it can change in an instant.

Like anything in life, we are all different and whether it’s good or bad, please remember that there is no right or wrong.  What I’m sharing with you is just my own account and what I feel today can easily vary to what I might share tomorrow.

So Day 1 is done!  I feel fantastic!  I always thought I’d feel good afterwards, but I’m a little surprised myself at how well recovery is going so far.  When I came out of recovery I was a little ‘crazy’ according to Leigh.  I only wish he captured some video of that crazy speak, it would have given me something to laugh at now.

Once crazy Yas left, which I think was in a matter of an hour or two, I began to feel ‘normal’ again.  I was given loads of information from the amazing nursing staff, including a summary of my drains, my oxygen, my PCA and other medications and finally my meal plan.

Would you believe that I didn’t get to sleep until after 1:00am?  I know it sounds strange, but to be honest, I’m usually a night owl so it didn’t really feel that strange to me – although I think some of the nursing staff wondered about it.  Don’t fear though, there’s a whole Rainbow Magic book about Yasmin the Night Owl Fairy!!

I did have the odd power nap here and there yesterday, so that might have kept me awake a little later than normal.

I woke up around 4:00am, right around my normal wake-up time when I’m training.  Rest assured, I didn’t get up and train today though, despite what some of you might think!  I waited for the sun to rise before really ‘waking up’ and found myself ready to start the day around 5:00am.

Today was eventful, I managed to do quite a lot, including:

• a sponge bath
• dispose of my attractive hospital undies (YAY)
• change into my Macaroon Peter Alexander PJ’s gifted to me for my recent b’day
• walk myself to the loo regularly for visits
• brush my own teeth
• eat a light fluid based diet
• track my friends and fellow athletes racing at Ironman New Zealand today, congratulations to all of the boys for finishing
• welcome some loving visitors, including our beautiful girls
• I ate a normal dinner, including a fresh salad and serve of sweet potato mash

When your highlight of the day is having your family just hang around, it’s always a good day.

I finished the day with another couple of power naps in the early evening, all with Happy Feet playing in the background.  Although, when the movie finished, I found myself full of energy again until about 1:00am.  I’ll have to start thinking about cutting out the little naps if it means I’m up this late each night.

All in all, it was about as perfect as it could be today.  I still have no pain whatsoever, I’m soaking this up for as long as I can.

Here’s a quick video update:

Thank you for your love and support.

Yas xxxx

It’s official!!  Farewell to my nipples, along with the potentially deadly tissue that classifies my family as a high-risk statistic for breast cancer diagnosis.

I am feeling fantastic, thanks predominately I image to an array of medication being pumped through me via the drip.

I may read this in a day or two and wonder how on earth I managed to string some sentences together, so at risk of truly messing up with some weird kind of rambling, I thought I’d provide a video blog update.

Hopefully this works!  From my hospital bed just now, I somehow fumbled my way through setting up a Previvor You Tube Channel.  Let’s see if I did it right!!

I really do appreciate everyone coming along this journey with me.

I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments area below, if this little video blog works for you, let me know.

Love Yas xxxx