I reported to Rush University Medical Center at 5 am on Friday the 22nd of September for my double mastectomy. My sister flew in from Seattle, giving up her birthday weekend, to see me through the surgery and the first week afterward.

My few nerves before surgery were calmed by pre-surgery shenanigans captured on video including impromptu strolling to "Set It Off" and off-key warbling of Danity Kane's banger "Damaged." Before surgery, I was injected with Tc99m, a radiotracer. The radiotracer allowed the surgeons to see which lymph nodes my breast drains to and identify which lymph nodes was most likely to contain cancer cells. I couldn't even care about the needle used to inject the radiotracer because the science was so cool. Also, there was a small chance that I might become a superhero.

I went into the operating room at 7:30 am and at 4:30 I was in recovery.  The total surgery time was around seven hours. The operation included removing all the tissue from both breasts; finding, testing, and removing lymph nodes around my armpit, and then placing tissue expanders behind the muscle. I spent a day in the hospital for observation and then I was released into the wild the next morning. I got home in time to watch Saturday college football, and see my Seminoles beat Clemson in overtime.