I'll try and make this as short and sweet as possible. Ha Ha!!  I said I'll try!
So I had my 5 week check-up Monday with Dr. Gordley. Everything is looking great, healing and the scars are coming along as best as possible! He reminded me just how bad my situation was and how he really had to work with my fat and belly skin to make it look good. He said he had to use more skin than he normally does and most people don't have this much skin grafted!  Of course, it's Patti we're talking about, nothing is ever easy or normal! With all that said, my good side, my right side implant is too small to make me look even. He was telling me they make a huge variety of implants nowadays!  Wide, narrow, short, fat, saggy, big (ha ha), anyway, now that my left side looks somewhat normal we need to put a somewhat normal looking implant on the other side and increase the size. And as far as the left side goes, we need to do some fat grafting on it. Meaning he needs to liposuction fat on other places on my body (top of hips, inner thigh-yes, he said he only needs a little and there should be plenty) and then reinsert it on the top of my boob. There's an obvious crease and wrinkle on the top. He said it is really easy to do and all this would be an outpatient procedure. (I even heard from a friend that just had it done-she agreed on the easy part). I actually cannot believe I'm sitting here typing that I need another surgery. AGH! BUT, I figured since I'm already down for the count on exercising and not being able to lift anything, I might as well get it done. My thinking is sometime before Christmas, hopefully while the kids are still in school! The other interesting, and the statement that got me to agree to all this was; that fat has stem cells and when the fat is placed where there is damage, the stem cells start to actually heal the damaged area. In short, my radiated skin that is still above my chest will eventually become healthy again. How cool is that??  Amazing!! And I trust Dr. Gordley so much, he's so on top of his research and really does care about the end result.
I did look at him and tell him how brutal lipo looks on tv. He said they are very rough and extremely brutal on TV, but he's nice and gentle!  Ha Ha!  Ok, good!  So, don't picture me laying in the OR with a  needle being jammed in and out of me. Think nice and easy!  Oh and did I mention I can finally lay on my left side!  I haven't been able to sleep on that side since before my mastectomy!!!  So now I can sleep on my back or right and left sides!!!  This makes this stomach sleeper of the past very happy. Sleeping on my back is very boring and no fun! I'll still never be able to sleep on my stomach again, and I've learned to deal with that.

Please keep my dad in your prayers, he is still battling his Aplastic Anemia. And if you don't mind add my grandpa (Papa) as well, his skin cancer is reappearing on his face.

As I go through my own doubts and fears and think about Linda and my dad, Papa, and anyone else going through life's struggles I am reminded about God's Shield. I've talked about this before, but we've got to put up our GOD shield, we have to ward off those evil arrows that are being thrown each and every day at us. When you are sitting there, in sorrow, pain, lost, etc. All you have to do is imagine your shield and ask God to protect you. It's easy and so rewarding!
Above all taking the shield of faith, with which you can quench all the flaming darts of the evil one. Ephesians 6:16