Finally, some answers

On Tuesday I went to see Dr. Hofer (plastic surgeon doing my fat transplant).  I had 2 pages of questions for him, and he calmly answered all of them in his super-relaxed reassuring way.  Maybe it's the slight Scandinavian accent that puts me at ease, or it's just his demeanor.  Just like the last time I met with him, I left the appointment feeling pleased and confident that I have such a great surgeon.  This guy is THE BEST.

Dr. Hofer told me not to bother with the H1N1 vaccine (he thinks the whole H1N1 thing is blown way out of proportion).  He said I don't need to get a fancy surgery bra or sports bra or other type of compression garment, which I worried about.  He said he may or may not cut my belly button, depending on what happens in the surgery.  He said I don't need to donate some of my own blood, and I don't need to worry about avoiding certain medications before the surgery.

At one point, I think he looked at me a bit funny - kind of like, where are all these questions coming from?   And honestly, I think it's because I'm over-informed.  I've been reading the message boards on the FORCE website, and doing lots of googling, etc etc.  I have to remember that most of the people on there are in other cities, and in other situations.   Just because they said they needed a compression garment doesn't mean that I have to get one.  Some of the information online is helpful, but most of it just makes me worry that I'm forgetting something.

I'm going to try to stop reading all that junk, and just trust Dr. Hofer and the team I have here in Toronto.  It makes me more relaxed to stop worrying about it, and trust that I'm in good hands, and we'll deal with things as they come up.  Dr. Hofer has a whole team of people that are available for questions 24 hours a day, so I know I'm taken care of.

One question I asked Dr. Hofer was if he could put me in touch with another one of his patients who has had the DIEP procedure (that's the type of fat transplant I'm having).  Through the mutant club (aka the BRCA support group), I've met a few ladies who did implant reconstruction with Dr. Hofer, but never anyone who did DIEP.  Dr. Hofer said he just happened to have a DIEP patient in the other room, and he would see if she'd like to talk to me.  Yes!!!

The gal said sure, and came into my room, and we chatted for about 10 minutes.  She's young, and has the exact same genetic mutation that I do, so we're really similar.  She had her fat transplant about a year ago, and she showed me her foobies and her abdominal scar.  Her foobies LOOKED AMAZING.  She had her nipple reconstruction done, but not the tattooing, so you could still see the scars from the surgery.  But the foobies themselves looked so good.  She even let me touch them - they felt "real".  Her abdominal scar was pretty big - I'm sure it will fade in time, but it was still a giant scar running right across her belly, from hip to hip.  I know, it's covered by your pants and everything, but still, I think it's going to take me some time to get used to that scar.

Anyway, this gal went on to tell me all about her fat transplant.  She didn't have any complications, but she was in the hospital for 8 days.  When she went home, her drains were already taken out.  She has two small children, so she said it took a couple weeks to get back on her feet, but by week 4 she was out and about.  After 2 months she was completely back to normal.

Then, as her swelling went down, she noticed that she had a bit of an indent (for lack of a better word) at the top of her foobies.  So she told Dr. Hofer about it, and he said no problem, and took some fat from her thigh and injected it up there.  Voila, no more indent.  Perfect foobie shape.  Then, when she had her nipple reconstruction, the nipples pointed down.  She told Dr. Hofer about it, and he said no problem, and did a little skin tuck and made the nipples stand at attention.  No problem.

Why this is interesting is because I've now learned that the fat transplant is not the be-all, end-all one-step procedure that I thought it was.  Yes, it's the big surgery, and they're going to do the best they can.  But I've learned that "touch ups" are pretty normal, and totally acceptable.  THIS IS FANTASTIC NEWS.  I was so afraid that I would recover from the fat transplant, and find that I didn't like my foobies, and then be really upset and hate my body.  But that's not the case - apparently almost anything can be fixed.  Of course, I would need to weigh the pros and cons of additional surgical procedures.  But it's nice to know that I have options.  The lady I was talking to said that Dr. Hofer is the best and he is an artist and he can do amazing things.

I feel so much better now.