My "foobs," slang for the fake boobs on my chest to replace the ones removed by a double mastectomy, are under construction.
BY Barbara Tako
PUBLISHED May 14, 2018
Barbara Tako is a breast cancer survivor (2010), melanoma survivor (2014) and author of Cancer Survivorship Coping Tools–We'll Get You Through This. She is a cancer coping advocate, speaker and published writer for television, radio and other venues across the country. She lives, survives, and thrives in Minnesota with her husband, children and dog. See more at www.cancersurvivorshipcopingtools.com, or www.clutterclearingchoices.com.
There was a large amount of time after my double mastectomy with reconstruction where I found myself still in need of a fair amount of pain medication and unable to do much. So, get this, no vacuuming, dusting, loading or unloading dishwasher, or anything repetitive or with more than five pounds of weight or force! I felt like a silly, but fortunate, head stuck on a popsicle stick or a talking head on top of a puppet body. I felt a bit useless. Hey, did you ever make a rubber band guitar with rubber bands and a shoebox? As I have said before, that pretty much describes my "under construction" chest! Either that, or two scrunched juice boxes stapled to my ribs and held in place, top and bottom, with a couple of really tight giant rubber bands. Grr.
What is a person to do when they feel like they are getting well too slowly and there really isn't a darn thing they can do about it? One possibility is to simply try to sink backwards into the process, trusting the process. Another important component is to manage the physical pain as well as possible. A third piece, in an operation this major, is to accept the pain that won't go away, even with medication. Sometimes dropping the rope with the tug-of-war with pain actually improves my perception of pain severity.
What is a person to do when they feel like they are getting well too slowly and there really isn't a darn thing they can do about it? One possibility is to simply try to sink backwards into the process, trusting the process. Another important component is to manage the physical pain as well as possible. A third piece, in an operation this major, is to accept the pain that won't go away, even with medication. Sometimes dropping the rope with the tug-of-war with pain actually improves my perception of pain severity.
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