Living Glorious

Living Glorious

Depending on how you like your math, it’s been about 245 days, 36 weeks or a solid eight months since we began an unexpected adventure on Adversity, Boobs and Silver Linings. Wow, that seems like a really long time and a very short time… at the same time!  We are overdue for a quick and final update.  So... a brief note on how I'm feeling, what's next and what YOU can do to help stack the deck in your favor follows.


How am I feeling? Well, to really embrace the sentiment, it would be best to indulge me a tad and watch this music video, Glorious.  It’s about a grandson taking his grandma out for a spin. Double dog dare ya not to smile!

*** Glorious Captures Aunt Gloria Perfectly - Serendipity Defined!  ***

As the eldest in a family of five, my mom's sister Gloria assumed the family helm when my mom was very young.  Aunt Gloria had a zest for adventure and a self-deprecating sense of humor that would sneak up on you.  Adventure? She drove a little RV across the country from New Jersey to visit her baby sister in Washington state. En route she'd cook dinner for her blind husband and manage the RV all by herself.  Once she got here we took a Redneck Cruise Ship, otherwise known as an Alaskan State Ferry to Anchorage for more adventure.  Aunt Gloria didn’t take herself too seriously, even when she started getting forgetful.  Heck, she figured...  there were benefits to being able to hide your own Easter eggs!

*** Boogie Boarding, Mom and Gloria, Mom in Kona and Mom on Manta Dive ***

What's next?   Well, we’re off to Live Glorious, whatever that comes to mean.  For now it is delightfully and purposefully undefined with a zest for life as we know it.  So far the theme of the shenanigans seems to be a lot of bikes, swimming, mountains, yoga, friends and oh - more mountains, more bikes and a tad of Type II Fun.   Racing?  Well, that’s a tricky one.  It depends on how the swim, bike and run come around. I’ve chosen to enjoy this bit of space and not even begin to consider “what’s next” until at least January of 2018. Yes, I intend to race again and most certainly am training.  Only time will tell when fitness starts to become fast-ish again.

Stack the Deck in Your Favor! As a final public service announcement, consider what you are doing to get on top of anything nefarious lurking in the health of Future You. Although the last few months was certainly by no means easy, we all know it could have been a lot worse.  None of the choices I had were particularly fun, but they all had a very good prognosis because it was caught EARLY. Please get on and STAY ON your preventative maintenance.  Future You thanks you and I do too!

Living Glorious. So, the book is closed on Adversity, Boobs and Silver Linings.  We are moving forward with enormous gratitude for the embarrassment of riches in support we received throughout this bumpy ride. The mammograms and colonoscopies especially warm the heart, if not your tender bits.  I’ll do my best to honor that gratitude, the living example that is my mom and the memory of Aunt Gloria.  The first few chapters of Living Glorious have been pretty darn amazing.  Who knows what the turn of the page will bring!

*** Living Glorious, Chapter 1 ***

Hello from the Other Side

Hello from the Other Side

Well hello from the other side! Thank you for the kind words and notes. Despite my attempts to will it to be so, this round has definitely not been a piece of cake. Certainly easier than the round first which benefited from a full week on 24x7 narcotics but no, not much fun at all. As I understand it this is due to the additional rearrangement of the musculature.

Nope – not quite. 

They don't look perfect underneath but they don't look like Freddy Krueger got a hold of them and that's a win! Knowing that the right side got extra scooping to get rid of the bad stuff in Round I and the left got some extra rearranging under my arm in Round II, I think they're going to be just fine. Other than the surgical markings they look pretty normal in a T-shirt and they are much softer than the appliances! Phew!  

Yay drugs!

Considering there's extra dressing on one side and surgical markings up top it could be worse!


Presently we are in the midst of Operation Hard Boiled Eggs. For the future reconstructive surgeons out there: We want these implants to adhere to their "pocket." This is typically not a concern for cosmetic augmentation as normal breast tissue solves for that. In my case, fluid (envision the white part of a raw egg) is the enemy. Increased heart rate = increased blood pressure = increased fluid = Jenn's eggs never set.  We want them to adhere so that I can get clobbered in a future mass Ironman start and have them stay in place.

The type of implant I got is a newly approved silicone "gummy bear" cohesive gel in teardrop shape. If you cut a gummy bear and a half you'd have two pieces of gummy bear. Same idea here and thus no leaks! For now, we need those eggs to set.

 Here's what they look like in motion: https://youtu.be/bjigPq-8dec 

Gotta love a guy who goes to Costco the day before Valentine's Day and doesn't overpay for flowers. Plus he makes sure they are kitty approved.  The only other item in his cart? Gummy bears. Because… gummy bear implants.... 

Always.

The Boob Dream Team continues to be AMAZING. I am forever grateful for their support and the rally of our collective tribe. I also continue to have gratitude that I'm fighting to get back in the saddle not fighting for my life. We are at over 30 mammograms now - keep them coming! The new doctor brings a ton of mojo (he's not hard on the eyes either… ) and I'm sure will provide an additional mojo infusion at my next appointment.

THANK YOU!!!