Scaffolding Ahead

I know a lot about reconstructions. See, my family (family of origin, that is) had this terrible luck when it came to sightseeing. It seemed we always hit major world landmarks (Big Ben, for example) when they were under scaffolding for reconstruction. Little face lifts. Patching things up here and there.

Tomorrow I'll go in for reconstruction. We have to be at the hospital at 5:15 a.m., and surgery is scheduled for 7:15. (Let's hope the doctor is more awake at that hour than we are.)

Instead of scaffolding, I'll have these strange tissue expanders with a magnetic "hatch," if you will, that will help the doctor find the right spot every week and insert a little more saline each time. It's sort of like internal scaffolding. Temporary and not all that good looking, but they'll help get the job done.

It's the first of four reconstruction procedures I'll be having over the next six to 12 months. Tomorrow I'll be under for about two to three hours and will have two- to three-inch incisions on each side (reopening the outer end of the mastectomy scars). They'll put in the tissue expanders, bandage me up and send me home the same day if all goes smoothly.

From here on out it will be an almost constant project. Every week I'll go in for injections until the desired size is achieved. Then, just for good measure, they'll expand me even further so that I will eventually have a more natural look when it's time to swap these out for actual implants. So forgive me if you see me around March and I look ... well, ridiculous.

It's okay. Just remember I've got some major scaffolding going on.

PS I have no idea what the structure is under scaffolding in the above photo.