Almost Done!

Well, I met with my plastic surgeon this morning. So far so good! He will exchange my expanders with my implants by making an incision underneath my breasts. He will use some of the skin from that area to reconstruct my nipples. He must place the nipples either above or below my original incision. That means my new nipples will be slightly higher or lower than they are supposed to be because they need to keep the oxygen supply alive and they cannot do that over the scars. My nipples will probably be fairly small since I don't have that much skin to spare. However, when they tattoo, they can go around it to make my areola appear larger. Wow, my very first tattoo ever!

He originally told me that I would have to have my nipples reconstructed at a later time but not so! I will have to return in three months to do my tattoo. One step closer to being done!

The next two months are crazy for me. I was in Houston last weekend for a conference. I have a retreat the following weekend. October is already busy between flying in for my sister's wedding to our biggest fund raiser of the year with work. My only possible opening to get this done soon is September 25th. If not, it won't be until end of October. The good news is that the recovery for this surgery is supposed to be much, much easier. He will devote about an hour to each breast. I spoke with two fellow Cowgirls today and they said they were up and about shortly after. If I have my operation on the 25th, I have to fly out to NM October 2nd. That would only give me seven days to recuperate. I should be able to do this as long as there are no complications from my surgery and I'm not too swollen. I need to double check with my doc tomorrow. I didn't discuss this with him because I didn't know his availability until after we finished up. He said I shouldn't need to stay over night and most likely I won't have to have drains put in. However, he won't know about the drains until he goes in.

Decisions, decisions! I'll keep you posted. Just wish me luck and send me good luck for a smooth surgery and speedy recovery if I go with the 25th!