Linda Holman

 “Surgeons must be very careful When they take the knife! Underneath their fine incisions Stirs the Culprit— Life! ”      ~ Emily Dickinson Kia ora whānau, thank you for visiting. This episode is about my recent surgery: a single mastectomy with immediate reconstruction. The intention is to explain it as clearly as I can so people having a similar procedure (or who are supporting someone who is) can have another resource to call upon. Please note this is being carried out in New Zealand, and different countries may have different types of surgeries that use similar terminology. I have already had a lumpectomy with lymph node removal , so didn't need further lymph node removal. I opted for an immediate reconstruction as the public waiting list is so long for delayed reconstruction that I'll never actually make it to the top of the list. I had initially thought I wanted to see how I went with a straight mastectomy and possibly a delayed recon, but now I'm glad t...

Kia ora tatou, nau mai, harae mai. Two weeks after the lumpectomy and lymph node biopsy I had a call from the surgeon to say that while there was no evidence that the cancer had spread (yay!) there was still some pre-cancerous cells left behind (boo!). This meant I needed to go back for a re-excision to remove all the DCIS cells. Due to the cancer being Grade 3, which is a fast-growing type, this needed to be done as soon as possible. The surgeon asked how full my calendar was. "I'm currently in a caravan, babysitting a duckling" I replied. "So my schedule is pretty wide open these days"... confused silence... "how is Wednesday?"... "Wednesday is good" :) Although it was a blow to have to go back in for more surgery, my overwhelming feeling is gratitude that I spotted it early and that it's being dealt with quickly. Not everyone lives in a country with free healthcare, and not everyone in this country is able to access the same qual...

 Kia ora tatou, nau mai, harae mai. Today I'm writing about my recent lumpectomy and lymph node biopsy. To recap, in late 2020 I noticed a slight puckering in my breast and was given a breast cancer diagnosis in December 2020, and scheduled for surgery in mid-January 2021. As I talk about in this post this all happened at the same time as I was having major abdominal surgery, so it's certainly been a lot to deal with all at once. And so, four weeks after my hysterectomy I found myself back in hospital for the lumpectomy. This procedure happened in the city so we had booked two nights in an Airbnb in Lyall Bay as the traffic is often nightmarish in the mornings. It was a great call, and coincided with beautiful weather so we had a lovely beach walk after dinner. However, while we were enjoying our Airbnb the hospital had a fire and the subsequent water damage caused no end of issues with the lifts, alarms, and general anxiety levels on the day of the operation. We had been i...