Mercury Retrograde...

Our dear friend and meditation teacher, Lori DelMar, taught us about this cosmic alignment called Mercury Retrograde http://www.astrologyzone.com/forecasts/mercury.html that occurs several times a year. During this time of challenging planetary alignment, miscommunication and scheduling problems occur a great deal more then usual. And right now it's wreaking havoc...especially when trying to schedule 3 of the top breast surgeons in the Bay Area for my 10 hr. bi-lateral mastectomy and T.U.G. flap reconstructive surgery! First, I was called Wednesday morning last week, and Dr. Lewis' fabulous assistant Idette (love her) said it would be scheduled for this Thursday, April 29th. Which really put a fire under our bottoms to get things squared away in a hurry! We contacted our attorney and updated our living will, durable power of attorney and health care representative paperwork (which is yet another very expensive thing that gay couples must do so that we can see each other in the hospital and make decisions on each others behalf! Please people...Legalize Gay Marriage!). Another priority of ours was to have professional photos taken before the surgery. Through Gillian and Rebeca Meyers, we were connected with a fantastic photographer, Lydia Daniller http://lydiadaniller.com/ and our divine hair stylists and make-up artists Gilbert and Gillian (also co-owners of the fabulous honeycomb salon in SF http://www.honeycombsalon.com/) came to our rescue with hair and makeup (amazing touch up on my bruised boob...couldn't even tell!) on Monday afternoon for a flawless photo shoot! Our first ever! Crazy, huh? Spike and I have been together 15 1/2 years now, and never had professional photos taken. Guess what everyone is getting this holiday season from us? ;-) I'll post pictures as we get them back! On Friday, last week, we found out that there was no way the three surgeons could coordinate in time for the April 29th surgery date, and that they were looking at Monday, May 3rd, which gave us a little more time, but I'm becoming increasingly aware of pain and swelling in my chest, breasts and arm pits and have upped the regiment of ice packs on the boobs and Tylenol. And, well, just the stress and anxiety of it all has killed my appetite. Now just 5 lbs. from my college weight, yay! Laughter with friends and family has definitely been a much needed distraction if not the cure. We decided to organize one last "hoorah!" in Delores Park on Sunday (taking full advantage of the beautiful 70 degree weather and soaking up some vitamin D) before surgery and recovery for the next 10 weeks. Thank you to everyone who came out and participated in the bare breasted, group photo "Tits over SF"! YOU are all amazing people and I'm so grateful to have shared that gorgeous day in the park with YOU!!! Contact Stacey or Dara for the "Tits over SF" group picture file (I'll post my naked breasts on the Internet, but I won't post yours! ;-) Our camera being stolen in PV, we relied on everyone else to capture that day (thanks Stace for sending along these) Here's a few:

Yesterday, I got a call from Idette at Dr Lewis' office telling me that the other two surgeons could not coordinate a surgery date until June, but Dr. Lewis said "Absolutely, not! We cannot wait!" So, they've referred me to another plastic surgeon, Dr. Lee, whom I meet with tomorrow, and depending on what they learn tomorrow during my examination (another fabulous examination gown photo shoot at least), Idette thinks they'll be scheduling surgery the following week (2nd week of May). We'll see, in the meantime, I'm seeing an herbalist and acupuncturist Beverly Burns at the UCSF Osher center who helped to establish the famous Charlotte Maxwell Complementary Clinic in Oakland, a clinic for low-income women with cancer, where she is Clinical Director. She is also part of a multidisciplinary team participating in research for women with breast cancer at the UCSF Cancer Center. I continue to do yoga, meditate, laugh and cry daily...All important parts of my healing process. Friday, roomer has it, some folks are planning to cast my breasts in plaster! Good times! More to come...thanks for staying connected ;-) ally