My surgery went well! Turns out I had cancer

I should have posted a few days ago. I traveled to have a double mastectomy earlier this month, it's a major surgery to prevent breast cancer in high risk individuals, which I am because it runs heavy in my family even though we don't have the currently known BRCA genes. When I was having my follow-up appointment with the surgeon to remove my drains and check in, the pathology report came back and showed I actually already had a 2 cm lump of cancer. Imaging I had done twice in the past 5 months prior had actually missed it. The most amazing news is that the surgery got it all and I don't need any further treatment.

I'm glad I did this because I may have gone another 2 years without imaging, thinking I was cancer free. Interestingly 2 mammograms also missed my mom's breast cancer, which is one of the reasons I didn't trust them and wanted to do this.

Anyway, I had a lot of valid concerns before surgery and several surgeons had implied I shouldn't do it and there would be no benefit. So I looked around until I found one that I felt saw me as a person. But there were reasons I was still pretty concerned about it. I have an autoimmune disorder that makes the possibility of dying during surgery far more likely for me and it also makes infection more likely. I also went years without most of the use of my arms and was concerned that this could cause issues in them again. There was also a good chance I would not have felt well, in various ways, for months after the surgery. Currently it looks like all the work and planning I, and my doctors, put in to make sure this went well means I've avoided absolutely every complication possible and have been in practically no pain. Only the arm stretches I need to do hurt. But I took a total of maybe 6 Tylenol after surgery, and I'm not even sure I needed them- I mostly just wanted to help prevent swelling. 

This is wonderful not only because I feel amazing and now know, without any doubt, that I absolutely the right choice: but it means I can be back to working on the site! Which also brings me endless joy.