It has been 2 years since my mastectomy and immediate reconstruction with an implant. I am about to go to my annual plastic surgery follow up appointment right after recording this episode.

I always say that the plastic surgeon put me back together after the breast surgeon took me apart to remove the cancer (and the left breast in my case). So you will hear me say that the plastic surgery appointment is easy compared to the medical oncology or breast surgery follow up appointments. The plastic surgeon did her work and I recovered. It is essentially a “well-visit” and she does not have any focus on my risk of recurrence or my overall longevity.

I was completing my appointment check-in on my phone before going to the appointment and it hit me that some of the health history is permanent. Despite the abnormality of the breast that is listed in my health history in my online chart being an event from 2 years ago, I realized I am not ready to archive that content or remove it as a health condition in my chart.

Ultimately, I do want to put 2023 and all associated health problems (i.e. breast cancer diagnosis and mastectomy and the reality of survivorship hitting me hard), I am not ready to do so. Why? There are too many reminders of what it was like back then to even begin to list them right here. What happened then has changed me (sort of) and changed my life (for certain).

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