3 days ago I went for my first appointment with the breast surgeon to discuss my risk reducing surgery as they call it. As she described the risk reduction and the surgery I kept saying that I knew it already! I said I know what I want and who does it! She seemed very happy with that and asked if it was one of their plastic surgeons I wanted to see and it was. I said if he wont do it because of the radiotherapy I would go to someone else! She still seemed happy about what I was saying. She is going to refer me to the said plastic surgeon and a clinical psychologist. If I don't hear anything within 6 weeks to contact them.
I was asked if I'd seen the DVD on reconstruction and as I said no the breast care nurse came in with some booklets and the dvd. I also told them about the wonderful support I'd had from the BRCA sisterhood and gave them the addresses of BRCA Umbrella, FORCE and the BRCA sisterhood group on facebook. They were happy to have them. The breast care nurse was one that looked after me through the breast cancer and it was really good to see her again.


Now my brain is totally taken over by it all I  think I'm going insane! Perhaps I need to see that shrink!

Liz and Rian looking very pensive!

Next are a couple of photos of some of my BRCA sisters from the Family History Forum.

Caroline and Rian.

Have now managed to sync the camera with Windows 7 but unable to do so with the printer on the new pc! What a pain Windows 7 is, nothing seems to be compatible with it..

So Here's the first picture I wanted to put on of my old friend Jenny who was the cleaner where I work. She worked there about 20 years ago, left and came back a few months ago but has now left again. I took a photo of her just before she left for the second time. I will miss our chats.

Was in London again last Saturday. Left home at 0600 to catch a train and arrived at the Breast Cancer Care site where I met my good friends from BRCA Umbrella I did the Race for Life with last year in Birmingham. Leigh-ann , Lisa and Rian and others I'd met on the web but hadn't met in the flesh ,Caroline, Jennifer,Karen, Lulu, Liz. I hope I haven't left anyone off. We were split in to different breakout groups and I was put in one without most of my friends except for Lulu but I made lots of other friends. Someone asked why are group was formed and the counsillor who took us said we all had something in common-we'd all had breast cancer. Interestingly there was only a couple of us over 50 and the rest were younger. That's what you get with BRCA, I was told previously I'd gone so long without because of my healthy diet as I'm vegetarian and was vegan for many years. Caroline pointed to a lady called Jackie I think she was a counsillor to ask my implant question and guess what? She said a lot of surgeons will do implants for ladies 6 months after radiotherapy and I've gone 15 months. YIPPEE!!!!! The day was invaluable but very tiring for all of us.
Gray went down with me as I'm a wimp and don't like being in London on my own though I used to go there quite a bit during my time in the Navy on my own! He obviously couldn't go to the forum but he went to the Imperial War Museum as he'd wanted to see it for a while and he quite enjoyed it.Afterwards we went to a pub with Lulu and a couple of the other girls for a drink and a chat before catching the tube back to Euston. I asked them about their implants and one of the ladies had her expanders in and one of them said "yo've got your expanders in too haven't you!" Lulu pointed out that mine were real! It was quite funny because I'm quite well endowed!




I'd like to apologise for not putting any photos on for a while but my camera wont work with Windows 7 and are old pc has given up the ghost! I went to Boots to buy a new camera and the lady there looked at all their digital cameras and not one of them was for Windows 7. Can you believe it1 So my camera is useless!


Joy of joys! I received a letter this morning from the breast surgeon about my pbm! She says she wants me to see her so she can explain to me the pathway that they have for undertaking a bilateral risk reducing mastectomy. It's on Thursday 13th May. So the ball is rolling! I've booked the day off from work to make sure I get there on time and I can mentally prepare for it. Gray has an appointment at the Biobank on that day but he's going to change it so that he can come with me.


I'm on the phone at the moment trying to book Tigers tickets for a final match- and they've cut me off! Grrrrrr!

As days go by I'm getting closer to wanting to book that appointment with the plastic surgeon. My first big worry is whether he will agree to give me cohesive gel implants as I've had radiotherapy treatment. If he wont I'll ask to see another plastic at the QE through my counsillor. If I can't have the implants then I'd rather go flat chested. I really can't face having a flap done due to the longer surgery and recovery time. I'd rather use breast forms.


I've put my question on several BRCA webites including the BRCA sisterhood facebook group, BRCA unbrella and Force. A few wonderful people have replied to me, some positive and some negative but I'm still sticking to my guns! Would love to find others who have had succesful cohesive gel implants after having radiotherapy previously.

Easter weekend is over and it's back to work. Haven't eaten much of the chocolate egg I was given at work from the bosses even though it's Green and Blacks plain chocolate which is one of my favourites. Gray and I decided not to get each other Easter eggs this year as we both want to lose weight and I seem to have gone off chocolate since I went on tamoxifen. Can't understand that as I have loved plain chocolate all my life.
We went to Leicester to watch the Tigers beat Bath and Sunday we had lunch with my brother Greg at the Wheatsheaf carvery. Gray spent most of the rest of the weekend decorating while I did a mountain of ironing. I'm afraid I'm allergic to wallpaper paste so I can't help him with thev papering or I sneeze my head off!. We put lining paper on the walls and then paint over it as the house was built in 1938 and the walls are less than perfect! When the paper is up I will be able to help him paint the awlls when we've chosen the paint. We have ahad lovely oak wood flooring put down in that room and the hall. We are very pleased with it.

The weekend was a bit marred by me worrying about my possible future pbm. Teri,one of my wonderful supportive BRCA sisters sugested listing my fears so they can all help me with them as they have already gone through the surgery. I am very lucky to have them in my life. Isn't the internet a wonderful invention I'd never have met them without it.