Amazing Alice is a “year old.” Just over a year since she had her mastectomy and she’s 
recovered so nicely it’s easy for the rest of us to forget there was ever a problem. Is she different? “I think more about doing good things sooner. That life is shorter.” She’s got a fancy trip on the horizon that she might not have scheduled otherwise.
At first Alice was unsure about whether to do reconstruction but is happy with her “new” breasts. Aiming for the same size as the originals, they turned out a tad more bountiful. “I’m definitely ‘perkier’ now than my fifty-plus year-old breasts were. And more globe-shaped,” she says. She mentioned that newer ‘tear-drop’ shape implants look a bit more natural.
For symmetry, Alice has implants on both sides—insurance is required to cover reconstruction–though the left implant is smaller since she still has natural breast tissue there.
Like the rest of us she needs to go for her annual mammogram. Except of course it’s not like the rest of us.
Alice had her “first” mammogram on Saturday. Left side only, since on the right side there’s no longer breast tissue. But nothing so simple as the regular old “smash and grab” mammogram. Had had four views of her one breast, and they had to physically maneuver the implant so that the machine can get a view of the breast tissue. First moving the implant forward and breast tissue back. And then moving the implant back and the breast tissue forward.
Ouch.
But of course, the real “ouch” is the wait for the results.
