Things are better most every day

Sorry . . . I do not blog here much any more.  Mostly it is because things are somewhat quiet on the Jill cancer battle front and I suppose part of it is that coming here and writing always gives me mixed emotions.  Sometimes I want to reflect and think about where we have been.  Sometimes I just want to be in the now or the future.
Jill will be going back to work this week in some fashion.  Maybe four half days.
Her incisions are all healing very well.  She is gaining strength every day.
She has had one fill so far and will probably get filled very week or two until is at desired size.

One small note . . . on the side that had cancer, she had a back flap procedure.  They take healthy muscle and skin from the back and move it to the front to go over the breast implant.  The reason for this is due to the fact that heavily radiated skin will not stretch very well.  At any rate a few interesting items:  First, the area of back skin that now lives on the front is football shaped.  The interesting thing is that you can see the incision on the back and you can see the scars on the front . . . but they do not connect.  This means that the football shaped part had to be tucked under some skin below her armpit and then pulled back out.  The other odd thing is that now if I touch that breast in the middle part, her mind tells her that I am touching her back.  How crazy?  I mean it makes sense and all, but still.  Therefore, I am now going to assume when she says her back itches or she wants me to scratch her back it is code that she wants to be intimate.

Another step

Jill had her first fill yesterday.  This is the adding of fluid to tissue expanders that are in her breasts.  She was in a decent amount of pain last night, which is not ideal, but this morning she already feels less pain.  Still tight, but not as sore.
She will get small fills every week or two until she is the size she wants.  Fortunately, we are in agreement with size . . . we both seem to be done with really big boobs.

Right now the tentative schedule for the next (and hopefully final) steps of her plan are in place.  Some more fills, then some time for her body to recover.  Then in late May or Early June she will have surgery to remove the expanders and put in implants.  This will also be the hysterectomy / oophorectomy.  Then she will be laid up for a while from all this.  Once recovered, she should be back to normal.  Well, normal for a cancer survivor with fake boobs and who is in menopause before the age of 40.  :).

All this is again an interesting process for her, me and our family.  Our lives were turned upside down.  Then we found a new normal.  Then life become very normal again.  Then a surgery.  Then an extended cold and the fear of what if it was lung cancer.  Then a slow return to normal, but with a somewhat slowed down Jill - but a Jill that was home every day (her not being able to do as much around the house like dishes or laundry - but was always home to get the girls ready for school, etc - so there was upside and downsides).  Normal will return even more next week with her doing some limited time at work.  Then she will be back to work 4 days a week (which is her normal).  Then another surgery and we do it all again.
We all agree this process is much better than the alternative.