4 weeks till top surgery

About 10 days ago, my breast tissue started to feel inflamed and tender.  It wasn’t in line with my menstrual cycle, and it hurt way more than that would, anyway.  As it got worse and not better, I wondered if it was some strange manifestation of a psychological reaction to my upcoming surgery.  I wasn’t feeling stressed or anxious about it, but was this psychosomatic?  Then a patch of skin below my left armpit started to really burn and sting, as well as the skin around my shoulder blade.

Then 3 days ago, I broke out into a rash in those areas… and my boooobs still hurt a lot.  I was able to get in to see my doctor yesterday, and… it’s shingles.  She said that would also be causing the breast tenderness, because of where it is.  Shingles flare up along a line of nerves starting at your spinal cord, and wrapping around to the front of your body – so that you only get it on one side, within a range of area.  It’s like chicken pox, redux.  Everyone I’ve mentioned this to says, “You’re too young to get shingles!”  All I know about it really is that Carrie Brownstein got shingles while on tour (from reading her memoir, Hunger Makes Me A Modern Girl,) so I guess I’m in good company.

I got 2 prescriptions to help with the pain and the duration.  We’ll see – it should start clearing up within a week…  I’ll be going back in 2 weeks for my doctor to take a look.  If this had happened close enough to my surgery, it would have had to have been postponed.  That would have made me really upset!  According to this timeline, I should be OK.  It’s just so mind bogglingly coincidental that this suuuper painful inflamation occurred right in the area I’ll be having surgery. I’ll let you know which ends up being more painful – this or surgery!

Other than that, I feel relatively prepared.  I just had my pre-op appointment via phone call a week ago, and that has put things into motion for getting everything ready.  I got a huge packet in the mail of things to sign (informed consent), directions for when to do what, etc.  I made a checklist to make it easier.

Pay surgeon – I still have to do this.  I exhausted all info about my insurance plan, and there is no way insurance would pay for any of it.  I expected as much all along, so, no big blow there…

Get parking permit – In process.  My spouse and I will be in Ardmore, PA for close to 48 hours, and we need a temporary parking permit to park in the municipal lots.

Get therapist letter – In process.  My therapist just sent me her draft last night, and it looked good to me, so she should be faxing it at some point today.

Get prescriptions filled – Done.  This could be done well in advance, so your meds are ready for you when you need them.  I needed to get a pain med and an antibiotic.

Get lab work – Done.  I did it yesterday  morning.

Go through a pre-op appt. with primary care physician – Done.  I did it yesterday morning.  I killed 2 birds with one stone – this plus shingles diagnosis all in one.  She will be filling out a form to clear me, despite the shingles, and faxing it in.

Send in consent forms and everything else that needs a signature by me – I gotta get this together.  I think I need to re-print certain pages and figure out what I still need to read through.

Take photos of chest – I did this for the surgeon already, but I might want to re-do it.  Not while I have these shingles though!

I feel ready for surgery, mentally.  Emotionally, I’m wondering if something is going on (shingles are brought on by stress, which I’m not actually feeling).  I set up an appointment to see my therapist (who I haven’t been seeing lately), just to cover all my bases.  It can’t hurt!