Beauty Pageant Girl

I always wonder how much to tell my children concerning my breast cancer or how they will interpret what I tell them. We have been very straight forward with the kids and I think it has gone well-except when Italia thought I would give her chemo by kissing her. I did not tell them exactly what would happen during surgery-only that they would remove the cancer from my body.
Well, Italia went to her brother's soccer game on Saturday and hung out with her two friends from her soccer team. They had a great time and they all came home happy. Last night all the boys were at practice and Italia shared with me that Montana-her soccer friend told her they would have to cut off my boobies in surgery. She said this as if Montana was saying something completely ridiculous. When I explained to Italia that is what they did do she was a little shocked. I explained that they gave mommy some fake ones so my body still looks real. That is when she got really excited and said I was just like the girls from the beauty pageant or Toddlers & Tiaras, except my fake boobies were under the skin. Reality TV does have its benefits.

What a Girl Wants

I cannot get Christina Aguilera's song out of my head. I guess I just keep hoping I will get what I want-now. Life has been a series of ups and downs since I last blogged. I went to my last chemo and had a horrible reaction. I blew up like a tomato and they had to stop the chemo. I guess you could say I counted my chickens before they hatched. I strolled into chemo with Jamie thinking this is it. I had visions of sushi, hot yoga, and spin class running through my head. I was a little full of myself thinking I got this one on the bag. Well I guess I left the bag at home because it didn't work out that way.
Then I got the news that two more rounds of chemo were waiting for me. I was a little sad, but chemo was the devil I knew. I knew how I would feel, what I would look like, and how to appreciate the down time. What do you know? My wonderful surgeons Dr.Suh and Dr. Mattson-Gates could move my surgery up by three weeks so I wouldn't have to have more chemo. Wasn't that so nice of them? I didn't think so at the time, I didn't want to be sliced and diced or chopped up. I liked chemo because I still looked like me amd there wasn't any lopping off of any body parts. Jamie asked that I not use the term "lopping off"-it grossed her out, but after 25 years of friendship I like to gross her out.
In the interim I went to the City of Hope and met with another oncologist for the 2nd opinion. In his opinion Kaiser was providing me with the exact same treatment he would and it all looked great.
On to surgery...