The End Is In Sight

I got two surprises when I went see my plastic surgeon on Monday. The first was that I told him that I was debating on whether I should get another 50 ml added to my expanders, so I asked for his professional opinion. I somehow walked out with 100 ml added. That surprise was weird, but admittedly my boobs looked better when he was done. Of course, expanders are meant to be temporary and therefore inherently don’t look that great no matter what, so I might have been fine just living with them the way they were for a while. That being said, I'm getting used to the idea of being "busty" now.

Every time I think about getting implants, I think of this meme. Hopefully, my results are more convincing.

The second, and more definitively positive, surprise is that I will only be living with the expanders for 22 more days. After he added the extra 100 ml, I assured him that I was definitely done filling at that point. He told me that if that was the case, I could go ahead and get my permanent implants in “one week to whenever”. March 14 was the first opening at a hospital that took my insurance, but the extra time is probably good for the bruising and swelling from my first surgery to clear up a bit more.

This means that I am still three weeks ahead of the absolute best case scenario that I could have imagined when I set out on this journey. Heck, I’ll have six weeks between getting my implants and the first WV Enduro race. I’ll almost definitely be riding in some capacity at that point, but I’m not sure how well, so we’ll see. A friend asked Frank if we wanted to split a rental house for that weekend around the time I was diagnosed. I told him to go ahead and say yes, because it would still be nice to see everyone, even if I had to watch from the sidelines. At this point, it looks like I’ll at least be able to pre-ride the course on Saturday, even if I don’t have the energy to actually race.

The only slight downside to my second surgery being so soon is that it falls during the week that I had planned to come back to work full-time. In a way that is annoying, but I guess it’s maybe better than being back for a few weeks and really starting to build momentum, only to have to take time off again.

I’ve still only worn real shirts a couple of times so far, and with the exception of the one slightly loose button-up shirt that is my own, I’ve still needed Frank’s help dressing and undressing. That makes me a little nervous in regard to going back to work, but I’ll manage somehow. Wearing real clothes again also means wearing a real bra again, although “real” is still relative. So far, I’ve kept wearing the thin white cotton front-closure bras with Velcro straps that I got in the hospital, but I’m trying to find something that looks better under clothes that aren’t baggy men’s shirts. 

All of my old bras are too small, and I couldn’t wear them because they have underwires, anyway. Per the measurements that I took yesterday, it appears that I have gone from a 32C to a 32DD. This isn’t as extreme as it sounds, because cup sizes are not universal across the board, rather they are a function of the difference between your bust measure and your rib measurement. My ribs aren’t that big, so another few inches above that still isn’t that big. It’s been interesting shopping around for something that will get me through a couple of weeks of work, but won’t become obsolete with the continuing changes that will happen over the next few months. I ended up ordering two colors of “The Busty Bralette”, which will hopefully accommodate some size and shape variations until everything is settled.

I saw my surgical oncologist today, and it will be my last appointment with her for six months. She gave me a referral to start physical therapy, which I will begin next week. Although I probably won’t be able to accomplish a lot in physical therapy before the next surgery, I figured that getting my chest muscles even a little looser beforehand will probably make things literally and figuratively smoother. I’ve really been pleasantly surprised with how quickly everything is wrapping up. I still have some anxiety about getting back into shape, and whether I’ll be able to ride as aggressively as I did before, but I’ll cross that bridge when I get there.