63. The Martini Shot...Or so I thought.

“Martini Shot” -a Hollywood term for the final shot set-up of the day.

I had my double mastectomy on August 24, 2018.

Usually reconstruction doesn’t take two plus year. Traditionally it’s removal ,immediate insertion of tissue expanders , inflation over a couple of months and placement of implants. (Unless of course you don’t rebuild a breast from your own fat which is done in the same procedure.) The process maybe delayed slightly by chemo or radiation treatments, but usually it’s done within at very most eight months, unless you’re me and some other cancers pop up along the way.

So with a kidney resection on the docket for what would have been my original final reconstruction, I ended up punting the surgery to later in 2019, and then when I went back to work on DOOM PATROL, set to kick it to Spring of 2020 except : COVID. So, not knowing if my cancers would make me “higher risk” I hunkered down with my husband, masking up and sanitizing religiously whenever I came and went to my car.

When things became a bit “safer” for routine surgeries, I found out I was lucky enough to be going back to work, and the status of my current health insurance looked “iffy” , I decided it was best to “pull the trigger” and enter 2021 cancers treatment complete, to start the year anew.

Remembering the difficulty of mobility etc, I set out upping my at home workouts to strengthen my arms and particularly my core because I knew that the first time around, the ability to sit up without using my arms was the point I recognized years of teaching fitness for what it was “prep for life after surgery”.

Dec 1st , I got my COVID test, as I suspected because of my ardent mask wearing, and hand sanitizing I was negative, and two days later I rolled into the surgery center at the crack of dawn to finally have what I had fondly come to refer to as the “breast colanders” removed.

Surgery in COVID is no joke. Unlike previous procedures where Collin could be around for the whole deal, in this instance I was by my lonesome after I checked in and they brought me up to “Pre-op”. Thankfully, as we had just finished an episode of our Podcast which was all about what we fucked up on the first surgery, so I was fully prepared this time in particular knowing that Collin wouldn’t be around with an assist should I need one.

Turns out, it’s like riding a bike. Yup, all the previous surgeries gave me all I needed to know what to say, do, and wear. And more importantly I did not turn down the post op pain meds.

The one mini hiccup was not insisting the doctor call Collin when he came to see me post op. Because of COVID, I was in a surgery center that my surgeon doesn’t work in all the time, so the nurses, while skilled were NOT his normal nurses. I know that I come out of anesthesia twice, once seemingly lucid, chatty and upbeat , then fall out again and come to a little more drowsy and not remembering anything that might have happened the first time.

The surgery was successful. The pain notably less than my double mastectomy, and I was out and on my way home in about six hours.

My mobility was limited but less so then the first time around. By my first week check in , incisions looked great and I was able to begin working out being conscious about minimizing chest involvement .

And all I could think was …. “It’s over!”

And then i tested positive for COVID-19.