Decisions

Sorry I didn’t blog this sooner – directly after my appointment I went to get my kids, who had spent two weeks with their dad/traveling to Minnesota to see family. They had my attention all weekend, as it’s a huge week for them – they both have birthdays, and they both return to school! My daughter is also changing schools and day cares, so it’s a bit anxious at my house.

Anyway, I did meet with my surgeon on Friday to review the available data and make decisions. I won’t post all the logic behind my decision, at the recommendation of a friend who’s been through this – she observed that when people with the best of intentions started to second-guess her choices/her doctor’s recommendations it was both painful and extremely anger-provoking. This does sound like something that would irritate me (and I really don’t need to second guess my decisions at this point, they were hard to make…) Everyone’s cancer experience is different.

And mine is coming with a double mastectomy.

This is more surgery than I’d been anticipating, so I’m wrapping my head around a more complicated recovery. One t-rex arm means moderate amounts of dependency on others. Losing the use of both arms means needing a lot of help. My daughter and I started the process of converting my office into an office/guest room, in anticipation of family needing to stay with me to help.

Once I have my surgery date, I’ll likely start a meal train, so that feeding my family doesn’t add to the stress of my caregivers. Although the kids like take-out, and in this day of meal delivery options, we won’t starve. 🙂 But there’s a limit to how much pizza I can eat. I may also need help transporting the kids occasionally – mostly this will get handled by boyfriend, my mom, school buses, and the kids’ dad, but I can imagine there will be times when I need help.

I’ll think of more things as I make my plan. Everyone has been very kind in their offers of help, so I guess I’m going to take you up on them.