Posts Tagged ‘medicine’

  1. Two less fallopian tubes to worry about

    September 20, 2014 by Julie Moon

    I had surgery on Wednesday.  My friend and gynecologist here in town, Stephanie Allen, did the surgery.  She has been a great support through all my decision making and has been great about providing me with articles and research to support my decision making.  I always feel respected and like we are in a partnership for finding my best health plan.

    It was a fairly simple laproscopic procedure.  She removed my two fallopian tubes.  I was told (I wasn’t awake yet when she came to check in) that the right tube had a cyst.  It’s obviously being sent off to pathology and the left tube was attached to my left ovary.  She said she had some difficulty removing the tube.  Hindsight is 20/20 and I don’t know why we didn’t think of this but I wish I had asked her to remove one of my ovaries.  As far as I understand my body can function normally with just one ovary and that would have further reduced my risk.  Honestly it didn’t even occur to me to do that since we talk about them as a unit.

    That’s the only regret I have about the surgery so far.  I am sore but mostly feel like I got punched in the gut several times and I feel a bit crampy as well.  She did remove my iud that was due to be removed as well.  She prescribed me 800 mg of ibuprofen and also some tramadol for pain.  I will be taking the tramadol tonight after a long day.

    She has recommended I start birth control pills to further reduce my risk of ovarian cancer.  This would suppress ovulation thus “quieting” the ovaries a bit.  I’d like to do some more research on that before I begin that.

    Overall…success…down two fallopian tubes and hopefully the pathology will come back clean and clear.  Checking things off the list and being proactive.  I’m kind of over having surgeries though…have I ever mentioned how much I hate trying to wake up after anesthesia.


  2. A Little Less Satisfaction

    October 3, 2012 by Julie Moon

    I have some of the same feelings about my breast reconstruction that I have about my wedding.  Let me explain.

    I got married 13 years ago.  This was before people had cell phones, digital cameras and blogs.  We barely had the internet back then.  Weddings didn’t seem nearly as creative as they are now.  If you hadn’t seen it before and you weren’t one of those super creative types you had a typical wedding.  Which is awesome…but let’s face it, not quite as cool as some of the weddings happening today.  It’s easy to get caught up in Pinterest and see beautiful weddings with creative ideas and wish you had “done that” for your wedding.  I get a feeling of dissatisfaction about my wedding…I don’t like it. I usually promptly close Pinterest  and the feelings go away.

    I have been having those same feelings about my reconstruction.  Technology and medicine never stops.  It is inevitable that breast reconstruction is only going to get better and better.  The choices available are going to blow my mind.  I know my mom has some of these feelings about her own reconstruction.  She had her surgery four years before my own and it has amazed us what was available to me that wasn’t quite as well known and/or available to her.  But I have to quiet that voice in my head that wonders if I should have chosen a different type of reconstruction.  I am happy with my reconstruction but I do have things that are still not quite right.  I know I have another surgery in November but I wonder if I will still have some of these feelings after that surgery too.  I want to help others but I think that there might come a point where I just have to quit looking things up and researching and being involved with the previvor forums for fear that my involvement will keep me from being satisfied with where I am.  I will never stop being an advocate for breast health, breast cancer research and breast reconstruction.  I do have two daughters…they may very well have the BRCA gene mutation.  My efforts to find a cure are for them as much as they are for me.

     


  3. I’ve Hit A Funk

    May 31, 2012 by Julie Moon

    ********warning…there is a whole lot of whining in this post

    i have to get it all out before I can get over it ********

    I haven’t posted since I got home from Charleston.  It’s been a week now since I returned.   Honestly I haven’t done much of anything.  I am having a much harder time with this stage than I expected.  It helps me greatly to look back on photos of myself as a happy, bright eyed woman because right now I am not sure where that chick is.  I have only really gotten dressed once in the past week and that was because some friends came over to celebrate Memorial Day.   I barely got off the couch that day and every day since.  So…let’s break it down so I can process all that I’m feeling.

    1- I hate meds.  It’s good I don’t need them on a regular basis because my body freaking hates meds.  I had to quit taking the dilaudid because even zofran wasn’t taking care of my nausea.  I decided I could deal with a bit more pain if it meant less nausea.  I hate how meds mess with your digestion.  I hate that I have to set a timer to remember to take something around the clock.  I’m finished with my antibiotic.  I’m taking extra strength tylenol but last night I tried some Aleve to see if that helped more.   Medicine makes me feel weak…not myself.

    2- I feel guilty.  Summer started on May 16th for my children. I feel like they are just missing out on the first month of summer, stuck with their sick mom in the house or pawned off on other people.  I want to take them to the pool but I can’t get in the pool…which poses a problem when it’s 95 degrees outside and when you have a three year old.   A few people have taken the kids to the pool and I feel like I’m missing out.  I want them to remember this summer as a fun time not as the summer their mother was laid up on the couch.  I’m tired of hearing the tv blaring but little children don’t find things to do on their own easily without some encouragement.  I just feel like I’m in a fog and the days are slipping by.

    3-I’m scared.  I see my wounds and worry about my healing.  In my head I know things are going to go fine but it’s such a delicate thing.  I pray every day that my body will be whole and complete and healthy but I am scared.

    4- I’m worried.  I worry about my brca sisters.  I know so many of them have been looking to me as a strong example.  They have told me their concerns and fears and I have been the champion cheerleader.  I have encouraged them and been their support and now I’m weak and I worry that this might scare them.  I know they want to know the good and bad but I know how scary it can be also.

    5- I’m grateful.  My friends have not missed a beat helping me out this time as well.  Stopping by with food, to clean up my living room or do a load of laundry.  I’ve had plenty of help with my children.

    Last night one of my friends came and got my oldest two children.  She took my wild and crazy 7 year old boy and my 9 year old with a low grade fever who had thrown up the night before.  She has three of her own.  Her selflessness made me cry.  To take a friend’s children when one of them is sick…potentially taking that on for your own family…loving my children as her own was remarkable.  I have said it before…my village is amazing.  Today my sister came and got the little one and they are off for a day long adventure.  I want my babies close to me…they make me feel comforted even when they are driving me crazy.  To be alone is a bit scary sometimes but I think I need this day to process, let it all out and stand back up.  I know my kids are having the time of their life…they will come home happy, recharged, well fed and loved and hopefully I will greet them with a bit of the same.

    How I look has become secondary this week…how I feel is so much more important right now.  I need to feel better.   I’m planning on going out today…somewhere.  I’m going to get out of the house and go somewhere that makes me feel normal.


  4. Free Webinar on Natural Breast Reconstruction

    March 29, 2012 by Julie Moon

    The Center for Natural Breast Reconstruction will be having a free webinar on Thursday, April 12, 2012 7:00 p.m. ET / 4:00 p.m. PT

    Sign up here for the free webinar: http://breastreconstructionnetwork.com/rightforme/

    From their website:

    When you join us on April 12, you’ll discover…

    • Exactly what natural breast reconstruction is and whether you’re a good match for the procedures we offer.
    • What all the acronyms mean…DIEP, GAP, TUG, SIEA.
    • What you can expect in terms of hospital stays, recovery time, and scarring.
    • Answers to insurance questions relating to breast reconstruction. Our insurance specialist will be on hand during our Q&A.
    One in eight women in the U.S. will be diagnosed with breast cancer at some point in her life.

    Take Control of Your Life!


  5. Happy Valentine’s Day

    February 14, 2012 by Julie Moon

    Tomorrow marks 2 weeks since surgery. The incisions on my back side are healing nicely. I do still have my two hip drains that I will keep for 2 more weeks. They are a pain and they keep me from feeling like a normal person. I can’t wear normal clothes because they are bulky and have to have room for them. I will be sooo grateful when I am able to get rid of them.

    The right breast is healing well. It looks so normal and the nipple looks untouched. The left breast is a bit gross right now. Because I had to have the sentinel node biopsy on that breast it complicated the surgery a bit. It has a huge scab over the nipple that we are keeping covered with Silvadene (Silver Sulfadiazine) to help it heal. Eventually the scab will come off and hopefully the nipple will have survived. I have no idea how long this will take. I am grateful my mom is here because honestly I can’t even look at that nipple right now. It makes me a bit nauseous.

    I have to wear a bra 24-7 (minus showering) and though it’s stretchy and “soft” it’s getting to be very uncomfortable. I have to wear it for another two weeks as well.

    My breasts today feel stiff and tight. Different than they have felt so far. It is so weird to have them and not be able to feel them. It feels as if I have something strapped to my chest. I am adjusting. I am sleeping better. Did I mention I can’t wait until these drains are gone. Seriously hate that part.


  6. ignorance to empowerment

    February 12, 2012 by Julie Moon

    I have had a very hard day.   I’ve been having adverse reactions to the pain medications that I have been taking.  I feel so overstimulated and prickly and uneasy from the inside out.   Thankfully we have decided to quit taking these meds and try something different tomorrow.  It is an awful feeling…like when you have a limb fall asleep…that prickly feeling as it’s waking up…that’s what I feel all over my body when I take those medications.  So goodbye Percocet and Lortab.  May I never need you again in this lifetime.

    In the middle of the day was a special treat.  My sister paid for a local woman to come over and give mom and I pedicures here at the house.  It was so sweet and relaxing for the most part.  My pain meds caused the end to get a little weird because my senses were overstimulated and I could hardly breathe…everything smelled so chemically strong even though it wasn’t.  I did sleep this afternoon and though that was good I still feel awful and can’t wait for these meds to be GONE from my body.

    I felt as though the whole day was ending on such a sad and sour note.  I was feeling down and very sorry for myself.  It’s in these moments that I feel regret for choosing this path.  I feel sad that I don’t have to be feeling this way but put myself in this situation.  Let’s just put it this way…it’s not a good place.

    And then tonight around 9 pm.  I got a message in my facebook inbox.  The person is my friend but not someone I regularly see or speak to.  We had been more involved in each other’s lives before there were 6 children between us.   Our paths have crossed from time to time but I did not know her story.  Tonight she shared her story with me.  She wrote about her mother’s breast cancer at age 45 and losing her father just a few years before that.  Her mother survived that battle but has now been faced with another area they will biopsy.  She had been talking to her mother about me and her mother decided to get the BRCA testing done.  They are still waiting on results and then will decide on their path after those results are in.   It was an amazing story but the line that really struck my heart was this.

    “Following your story of empowerment has made me choose a path of empowerment over the path of ignorance that I have been on.”

    I will sleep well tonight because my heart is full.  Two women are DOING SOMETHING because I did something and wrote about it.  Her sharing that with me today is helping me to keep on keeping on! It’s the sunrise on this dark day I’ve had today.


  7. Day 1

    February 2, 2012 by Julie Moon

    Wow! This is the most surreal feeling I can imagine right now. I actually did it. The doctors said it went great. I’m sleeping well despite my awesome nurse checking in on me. The hospital is beautiful and my room is large. I do miss my babies and the Mister.  I called my big girl around 8:30and had my best friend wake her up.  It was good for both of us.  I am so grateful my mom is here.  I am so grateful I am so healthy that this makes it such an easier procedure.  I have gotten sooooo many compliments on my beautiful quilt my friends made me.  Life is good.  My heart is full.

    My surgery took 12 hours. Can you believe that? I am sore. Morphine And Valium to the rescue.