Hi Team Good Vibes, 

Thanks for all the well wishes this past week. I’m too tired to respond to all your emails personally. Please know they make a big difference. And I have read each one many times. Thank you! Thankyou! Thankyou!

Yesterday I got my drains removed. This is a turning point in recovery. I am in a much better place and on the mend! Pain is much easier to manage without drains. And my incisions are starting to heal. 

Drains are nasty little creatures that can cause shooting pain with most movements. And yes, they have to be “milked” twice a day. That is the medical terminology, you can’t make this stuff up. 

While the surgery was complication free, it still had some surprises. 

They found breast milk. I believe the words the surgeon used in explaining this surprise to Mike was “a lot” and “oozed”. A first for my surgeon and his team. All the doctors had told me to wait six months post weaning to do any breast surgery to ensure I was all dried up (breast milk can increase the chances of infection). Owen was weaned on July 24th – almost 9 months ago. Three of those months I took Sudafed daily (known to dry up milk supply). There are just too many jokes that could be made about this situation. Thankfully, the only impact on recovery was drains for multiple days (vs. one day) and a week’s worth of antibiotics to ensure no infections from this extra fluid. All things considered, not that big of a deal.

The other surprise was my blood pressure dropped after being transferred from the OR recovery to the discharge recovery. A few extra drugs and a delayed release. Again, nothing that serious. I still made it home Monday night. 

All in all, it was a complication free surgery. I’ll be taking it really easy for the next few weeks to ensure I can have a fun and active summer. 

I have my follow up in a week and a half and at some point the pathology report will come back. Now that we know there was still breast milk in my tissue, I assume the non-biopsied suspicious spots from my last scan were breast milk. My worry about this upcoming report is nearly gone. 

Unless something serious of note happens with the pathology report or my next MRI (August I think) I won’t be sending another “FYI” email until October in preparation for “the big surgery” that is tentatively scheduled for October 26th.

I hope to see you all this summer.

Happy Passover and Happy Easter! 

Love,

Jessie 

#BRCA #BRCA2 #EmailToFriendsNFamily