One Year “Cancer Free”

One year ago today, August 22, 2014, I went to Moffit and had a skin sparing bilateral mastectomy & a sentinel node biopsy. I consider this surgery my cancer removal date so, Happy One Year Cancer Free to Me! There is no cure for breast cancer. None of my doctors have ever told me that I am cured or cancer free. I have heard “I see no evidence of any cancer.” Some say I am in remission… I guess I will always be in remission unless it comes back. The 5 year mark is a major milestone and research shows that "the longer you go, the less likely it is to come back." I try not to dwell on the fear of recurrence too much but it does creep into my head more often than I like. It just takes that one little nasty cancer cell that surgery didn’t cut out or chemotherapy didn’t kill to multiply and reoccur. There are so many articles about this subject …

http://www.breastcancer.org/questions/cancer_free

To celebrate my one year anniversary I decided to do something that I never thought I would EVER do (never say never right?). I got a teeny, tiny pink ribbon tattoo on my right wrist. My Breast Friends Abby & Nikki also came with me and got the same tattoo. Several of Abby’s wonderful family got a tattoo in support of Abby and my awesome sister-n-law Julia got an “L” pink ribbon tattoo for me. We pretty much just swamped Katie’s entire shop in Gainesville (Anthem Tattoo) with a line out the door for pink ribbons.

My "Breast Friends, Abby & Nikki"

Julia's pink ribbon "L" <3

I have my one year follow-up at Moffit with my surgical oncologist next week. Unfortunately, it still seems like I’m always at the doctors for a checkup or something. I guess this is my life and I need to just get used to it. My next procedure is 3D nipple tattoos with the fantastic Vinnie Myers in Finksburg , MD. It’s probably something that many don’t realize when you get a mastectomy, in most cases that means you also lose the nipples. In mine it did and I joke that I’m like a Barbie doll (no nipples). I’m really looking forward to my trip up north next month to get my Vinnie’s done.

Here is a very cool video about Vinnie Myers and the amazing work he does with his 3D nipple tattoos http://www.nytimes.com/video/health/100000002915699/the-nipple-artist.html

All for now. XOXO, Lynn