Expansion #1

I haven't blogged much the last few days because there hasn't been much to blog about.  Well, there's one kinda big thing regarding work, but it's still too up-in-the-air to elaborate on yet.  Hopefully I'll know more by next week.

Today was my first expansion appointment at the plastic surgeon.  I thought I'd get both sides expanded, but I guess my skin was/is rather tight on the right (tumor) side, so Dr. Sterkin had started the implants uneven when placing them during surgery and today just brought the right side up to the left side.  He also spent time explaining the timeline for reconstruction.  He said that we'll work to get me fully expanded during the time I'm having chemo so that I'll have that fully-expanded buffer before I start radiation.  Radiation can cause all sorts of skin and tissue issues (and can mess up implants), so he said that the final reconstruction won't happen until 6-9 months after radiation is done.  And I'm not sure exactly when radiation starts, as the appointment with the radiation oncologist isn't until tomorrow.  Either way, it's still a long road ahead!

The expansion itself was remarkably painless.  There's a valve-type thing in the expander and they just puncture it with a needle attached to a big syringe and top things off.  :)  Other than the needle poke, I felt nothing.  And I really don't feel much different size-wise, either.  Here's what the tissue expander looks like:

And here's where it sits, behind the chest muscle:

I heard the gradual process of expansion described as being like the way your abdomen stretches during pregnancy.  :)

The doctor did peel off all my surgical steri-strips (and then re-apply some), and that felt odd.  He's very happy with the way I'm healing and the way things look.  He also was surprised I hadn't started PT yet.  I'd been being super careful movement-wise so that I didn't hurt anything, and I definitely feel that my range-of-motion is limited, so I'm pretty happy that I'll get to work on that.  He gave me an exercise to start (walking fingers up the wall), and I came home and bumped my first PT appointment up to this week.  Here's hoping it helps and I can soon put shirts on over my head--I've been raiding Greg's closet since I own so few button-up shirts myself.

I'm glad I'm moving up the PT, too, as my CT scan and bone scan (and pre-chemo blood work) are scheduled for February 3rd and I need to be able to raise my arm over my head to do the CT scan.

Moving right along...