Things have been all quiet on the home front, until now!  I went to see Dr. Gordley today as I was suppose to check in last week and put it off because he was going to expand a little bit more (to give me more skin to work with during reconstruction) but I'd been in a little bit more pain that usual. So, I waited until this week.  As per usual, he greets me and says 'let's see what's going on?'  Usually there's nothing and he simply states all is good. But today was different. There's one small area that is extremely thin on the under side of my radiated expander. The skin has always been thin here, always been discolored and was the area where my infections always occurred. He actually told me the expander is trying to break through the skin.  AGH! There were several options he could choose. 1) expand a little more, hoping to get rid of the little wrinkle there, 2) take out some fluid to let the wrinkle fade, both of these he didn't like because both had the possibilities for opposite reactions. And then finally, he could remove them and put in my implants. He thought, looked, talked, thought some more and finally said, we need to remove these-NOW! This week!  WHAT????  Surgery, this week?  But, nothing is planned out, my schedule is set...HA HA, nope, I've learned I'm not in control, not with cancer. I said, sure, my schedule is flexible. I'm good with that!  So there it is, Thursday 8am I will have my expanders removed and implants put in. The hope is the implants (which are way softer) will allow for the skin to fully heal and that thin part to get thicker. If this doesn't happen over time or I'm not happy with things, then we will go in and have to use belly fat, belly skin, back flap (use the back muscle-ugh), whatever to make things right. Anyway, the surgery on Thurs. will last about 45 minutes and is an outpatient procedure!  WooHoo!
So, of course my mind is going 100mph simply because I have more questions than answers and because it all has happened so fast. I guess this is normal! Not to worry, not to fear, it's all in God's hands and it'll all work out for the best. I was just saying to Rob last night that I'm tired of being in pain. Well, I guess God heard me and Dr. Gordley assured me this would all be better afterwards than what I'm feeling now.
After I ran a few errands I knew I needed to get to church and Fr. Tom was so graciously in his office and anointed me and said a prayer!  So glad to have him, my church, my family and friends....Just a few more prayers are needed that surgery goes good and I'm back to normal much sooner than I hope!

Thanks again for all the support and prayers.