Friendships through Breast Reconstruction
The value of friendships through Breast Reconstruction is beyond measure. The women that I have met in person or on-line through social media skip straight to, “I feel like I’ve known you a lifetime” mode. Polite introductions are left out and the topics steer straight to the matter at hand:
- Tell me your story!
- Where are you at in your process?
- How are you doing?
- When is your surgery?
- How are you feeling?
- You look amazing!
There are options and choices for breast reconstruction. That is part of the discussion among “breast friends”. The real thought provoking conversations start when these questions are raised:
- How did you find your plastic surgeon?
- Was it worth it to travel for your reconstruction?
- Did you have pain?
- What about the scars? I’m afraid of what I’ll look like.
- How long do you think it will be before I can be back to work?
- Were you scared?
- I’m so worried about my children and what they are thinking?
- When could you start exercising again?
- What about my pets?
- When can I drive?
The list is really endless and just when I think I’ve heard every question in the book… I add to the infinite list of valid questions and concerns about this immense decision to be made after a mastectomy.
Divert
So today, I honor those of us who cut to the chase with our introductions. I applaud you for asking the questions. Don’t ever stop asking or formulating those important questions. But, do take a break. It is therapeutic to divert your conversations once in a while from the topic at hand, which for my group of “breast friends” is the myriad of topics that encompass the decision to have breast reconstruction.
I will give you a perfect example. Just last evening I was chatting on-line with a woman who recently had breast reconstruction. I was checking up to see how she was doing. It was late in the evening and perhaps we were both a bit “punch drunk” goofy from needing to rest our heads on the pillow. But our conversation lead to topics that had nothing to do with breast reconstruction and I know if we were sitting in the same room we would have been laughing it up. We shared pictures of our family, nieces, pets, vacations. It was good to see another side of this woman who I know has been through a lot lately. Divert. It’s a good thing. When I looked up that word on my phone from my Dictionary app the fourth listed definition said this: to distract from serious occupation; entertain or amuse.
I encourage you to distract, entertain and amuse because it’s true what they say:
