Chapter 2 has opened and CLOSED! I had my double mastectomy, total hysterectomy, and expanders placed on December 11th. It was a long surgery (short for me, but not for my family waiting). It's the most nervous I've ever been going into it and only my second surgery my whole life. 
Surgery went really well. I had no cancer in my ovaries, my nodes had scarring which suggests there was cancer, but the chemo got it, and my breast tissue they took off still had cancer cells, but is common for this to happen. 
I was sore the day after surgery and it was tough trying to get out of bed the first couple of times because I couldn't use my arm to pull myself up and my stomach muscles hurt from the hysterectomy. Luckily Jeremy was a huge help like always and would hug me and pull me up, so I didn't have to use those muscles getting up. After the first couple times it got easier and I was able to roll somewhat and get myself up and go for walks down the hall. 
Now you know I can't go into anything without bringing some humor, so I had ordered a swimsuit cover up that has the bikini front and back on it. I cut the sides and sewed ribbon onto it so I could wear it like a poncho. I told Jeremy I don't care how sore or out of it I am you will put this on me to cheer me and others up!! First time I got up to go for a walk we slung that on and down the hall I went with my thong bikini on!! It was great and definitely what I needed as I loved the laughs it got!! 
The pain was a lot better than I had expected and after a couple days I stopped taking pain pills and was feeling pretty good. I was pleasantly surprised that I wasn't concave- they were able to put expanders in and fill them a little bit, so I did have a little boob. I guess when I was coming out of anesthesia and the doctor told me that I did a little cheer dance about it!! I would get sore in the evening after doing things all day, but it was almost harder not doing things because I felt so good. The worst part was my left arm where they took nodes from and the incision in my arm pit was the most irritating. 
Getting home after 2 days in the hospital was nice to be in my own space and bed! The hardest part was taking a shower and seeing what my body looked like. I have 8 new scars on my belly and chest and my chest scars are very big and ugly. They're not scars like on your arm where it looks uniform and nice. Its lumpy and bumpy and they don't look the same, they're not nice and round. That was emotionally hard to see. You go from feeling like a woman...long hair, nice boobs, working, on the go all the time to no hair, no boobs or nipples and nasty scars, not being able to work, having no energy to do anything. The only time I got sad about all of this was when I showered really...as soon as I got dressed I was like ok Im alive..its all good. 
I was feeling pretty good overall however, I was starting to get some energy back and I was able to enjoy christmas with my girls and husband! I was so happy that I was feeling way better than I expected and my eyes are better and was able to see my girls' expressions on christmas morning!!
So thankful to have such an amazing team of Doctors at Essentia; Dr. Evans, Dr. Termuhlen, Dr. Ketchum, and Dr. Fowler (Northland Plastic Surgery Center)! They were all SO personable, genuinely cared, and took such good care of me during this process! I have amazing family and friends who were there for me again and who I can never thank enough! 
We made it....everything is up hill from here. Reconstruction will start and life will start to get back to normal! Chapter 2 has closed and I'm officially a survivor!