A day at the S. Mark Taper Imaging Center.  First up an IV hook-up and an intravenous injection of Technetium 99m Medronate (basically a shot of radioactive material) for the whole body bone scan.  While this material travels through my body I get to ingest this lovely "smoothie" (pictured) for the CT Abdomen scan.  They really should not call it a "smoothie", it tastes nothing like any smoothie I have ever had, in fact tastes like chalk.  Next, I get to sit in a waiting room, IV still in my arm, for about an hour while all these lovely chemicals travel through my body.

CT Abdomen scan is up first.  Big machine, makes lots of noise, room is cold.  Next is the CT Chest scan.  They send contrasting agents through my IV for this test.  It creates this weird internal warming sensation from my head to pelvis region.  Very strange.  Both tests take about an hour to complete.  Afterwards, I am escorted to another room with another big, noisy machine for my whole body bone scan.  This takes about 45 minutes of lying completely still while the giant machine moves over my body.

After I am finished at the Imaging Center, I walk across campus to have my first meeting with the plastic surgeon.  Once again I am being inundated with a ton of information.  He briefly explained the three options for breast reconstruction available to me:  1. Breast Implant surgery which involves stretching the pectoral muscle out by filling a balloon like pouch with saline over a few weeks time, then inserting either a silicone or saline implant.  2. TRAM Flap procedure that relocates abdomen muscle and tissue up to the breast area to form a new breast.  3.  Latissimus Dorsi Flap procedure where they cut part of the latissimus dorsi muscle in your back and move it to breast area to create a pocket for an implant.

My head was spinning after all this information was spewed at me.  My biggest concern that I expressed with the doctor was my ability to be able to do all the physical activities that I enjoy, i.e. swimming, surfing, softball and basketball.  I felt like I threw him a curve ball.  Basically his answer equates to: like life, there are no guarantees to whether or not my muscles would recover 100%.

So off I go to ponder what will be the best option for me.  I am not happy.