Cleavage Donations

Week 12: Hey everybody. How's it going? First, I wanted to let those of you who've asked how to post a comment to my blog that all you need to do is click on the title shown above the post. A comments block will open at the bottom of the window, then you're free to type away! You can always email me privately if you want to keep it personal or confidential, but otherwise posting your message will save you a step. Ask me any questions, share information, tell a joke, or share your own stories...write whatever you want. I'd love to hear from you. (And I promise I won't vote you off the island unless you're a meanie who writes bad things.) I've also had several people cheer me up by volunteering to donate their surplus "tissue" to me. I actually thought about that, except tissue from elsewhere on my own body, thanks. I think I mentioned before that the plastics doc told me that once the muscle in the abdomen is cut or lifted or otherwise compromised, she can't use it...which is what happened with my appendectomy. My back, on the other hand, is my sacred cow and messing around with it is strictly a last resort. So I asked the doc why she couldn't just use the skin from my thigh or arm as a patch over the area where the cancer is cut out. (Better yet - instead of skin from my limbs, give me a butt-lift and use the leftover skin from that! The problem with that youthful vision of mine is I wasn't blessed with any junk in the trunk. "Baby don't have 'back," so there's no underlying tissue I'd be willing to part with.) Nothing to spare from my derriere doesn't really matter though. The doc told me that taking skin alone won't work because the skin needs a blood supply. With all of my breast tissue removed, there won't be any stuffin' left to graft the skin to -- which means there won't be a source of blood supply -- and without a blood supply the skin will die. Essentially, the skin, muscle, fat and blood supply all has to come as a unit that can't be severed and then re-attached. (At least that's my interpretation of what was explained to me.) So to clear up the confusion I've probably caused now, if the tissue from my abdomen or the tissue from my back was to be used, it wouldn't be detached, moved and re-installed. It would remain attached to the veins/arteries that are feeding it (like being on a leash), then pulled through my body and brought back up to the surface to be stitched into place. Again, that's my interpretation of what was explained to me, but I could be one of those quack cancer-patients you hear about who doesn't know what she's talking about.