Little Vinnies: Part II

A few months ago as I was getting ready for nipple reconstruction surgery, I started to mention a little something about nipple tattooing. Short story is, there's this interesting gent outside Baltimore who started tattooing while in the Army. One morning, he woke up and said to himself, "Self, what you need to do is tattoo nipples back on to ladies who don't have them no more." I'm not sure if that's exactly how the conversation went. But I feel like I'm not that far off. For the slightly longer story, try this ABC news segment from about a month ago.

Being all world-renowned and what-not, Vinnie books up fast. So when I called in early August to schedule with him, today was the first slot he had available. For anyone curious, his shop looks exactly like any other tattoo parlor I've ever been in. No, wait. This one had a pool table in the middle of the lobby area. And it was a lot cleaner. None-the-less, it was in a tiny strip-mall. Sandwiched between a veterinary office and a beer-alcohol-wine-tobacco shop.

Ahh...Maryland.

Vinnie explaining tattoo after-care procedures. Photo expertly cropped by Rob. (Yes, yes those *are* shark teeth in the background.)

And a post-tattoo photo with the artist himself.

Little Vinnies: Part I

Blogspot just kindly reminded me it's been the better part of 6 weeks since I've blogged. I feel like with most blogs that's really not such a big deal. I'm mean, c'mon. Sometimes you just don't have anything that friggin' exciting to write about. Or sometimes life gets in the way and you're too friggin' busy to sit down and write about how friggin' busy you are.  I'm going to claim the latter on this one. And trust me. Even though this is a blog about cancer - no news is almost definitely good news. Honestly, if I have something to b*tch and moan about, y'all be like the second or third to hear about it. You're in the top 5 for certain. 

So I could catch you up on the last 6 weeks worth of awesome. But even just thinking of everything we've been up to kinda makes me tired. I will say this, though. I just wrapped up my second-to-last-ever semester of grad school. There are no words for that 16 week suckfest. Don't get me wrong. The courses were amazing. I now know more about International Social Development than I ever thought I wanted to know. And now consider myself a burgeoning program evaluation guru. (Also, I use words like burgeoning. Correctly and everything.) But that was brutal. I'm talking, "I got a B" brutal. Yea. 

And I'm totally not blaming that "B" on stupid cancer or anything. But! I did have to go back in for another revision surgery during the semester. Of course the week of Thanksgiving - aka "the week before Finals" - was the most logical time to go in for surgery. Paper writing on pain meds... what could possibly go wrong???

Anyway, back to that surgery. On the right side, the inframmary fold had, well, kinda come unfolded. I"ll spare you any images and let you use your imagination (or Google!) on that one. Let's just say, one wasn't as perky as the other. So Dr. M went in and perked her right back up. Not for nothin' - he's used the same inframammary incision on that side 4 times now, and it still heals up like a champ every time. Which is really helping my "I'm part Wolverine" story.

<Side note for anyone who is a) intollerant to morphine, and b) will be in need of morphine any time in the near future. My stomach is always at odds whenever the two happen to meet. To prevent the throw down (in which I inevitably throw up) the lovely hospital folk give me some anti-medics. One of which, this time, was a scopolamine patch to wear behind my ear for 48 hours. And it worked great! I would, however, have appreciated a word of warning that it could, might possibly make my vision blurry. Temporary side-effect that went away within 48 hours of removing the patch. But c'mon - you gotta warn a girl!> 

Now I realize I've rambled on-and-on and have gotten no where near to the subject line of this post. Yup... looks like this was meant to be a two-parter. Stand by for the sequel, Little Vinnies: Part II. Which hopefully will not take another 6 weeks. I make no promises.

Whew!

Well, y'all, we finally made it through Pinktober. And none the worse for wear, I'd say. It is safe once again to go to the grocery store without running into this...

Mmmm....biscuits for the cure!

...and the autoparts store without seeing this...

Huh...pepper spray to cure breast cancer? If only I'd know it was that easy. Kinda makes all that pesky chemo nonsense seem silly now.

...or the breast surgeon's office without this...

Go home, JCPenney, you're drunk.

And while I saw very little of this... 

Fear not, I'll be carrying that torch again next year.

Pipe down!

Now this post is only 4 days overdue. I had grand plans of a Halloween edition Throw-Back Thursday post for you. But ummm....yea...can I still blame this one on chemo brain? No? Okay, fine. Then I'm totally blaming it on being an overwhelmed graduate student. Btw, 9 credits in a semester and an internship and working full-time... maybe not one of my better ideas. I've clocked more hours sitting at this desk in the last month then I care to mention. But! There's only 5 weeks left in the semester. And I'll still graduate on time (have I mentioned May 17th 2014? Mark you calendars!). And I've figured out a brilliant (if I do say so myself) way to redistribute my final course load next semester and do a little traveling. More on that later. 

Left: Halloween 2012. Right: Halloween 2013. Both: Dogs sincerely displeased with their costumes.

Wake me up when Pinktober ends: Part II

So here's a little hodgepodge of things I thought I'd share with you, my dear readers, while I procrastinate the other writing I should be doing right now. 

1. Since Tuesday's celebratory post, I've received some much better suggestions on how to identify the fairly major milestone that is an awesomely cancer-free year. 'Cause Cancer Birthday just doesn't sound quite right. So instead...

Happy 1st Suvivor-versary Day!

or

Happy 1st Survivor Birthday!

But, hey, it's my first time around at this so what the heck do I know? Wait 'til this time next year. I'll have this thing down solid. And speaking of having it down solid...major, major, major high-fives to an awesome young lady we know who has done just that! Congrats on 21 years free of childhood leukemia!

2. Remember that article I shared with you a couple weeks ago? It's been picked up by the Baltimore Sun and shared by the fine folks at Stupid Cancer.

3. And finally, how do you know when it's entirely time for Pinktober to be over with for another year? When you're driving to work and see this license plate.

And your first thought is... BRCA positive??? Why on earth would you announce to everyone on the highway via your license plate that you're positive for the BRCA gene mutation and are predisposed to breast cancer???

Happy...ummm...birthday?

I have officially been cancer-free for 365 days!!! And while out celebrating tonight with the fam, our waiter - Phil - asked if there was a special occasion  for our get-together tonight like a birthday. Well... yeah, I guess it kinda was like a birthday. There was family and cake and candles and gifts. Sounds like a birthday to me. 

Family? Check!

Cake? Check!

So I got to wondering how other people have celebrated an entire year of being foot-loose and cancer-free. In case you're curious, too, here are a few results you get when Googling "how to celebrate 1 year cancer-free". 

• You get oddly specific greeting cards commemorating the occasion.

• You get a list of 20 Ways to Celebrate Cancer Survivorship. With suggestions like:

1. Get a tattoo
2. Plant a tree
3. Organize a blood drive 

•  Then you come across some really well written blogs like this one. And this one, that also includes this comic.

"A Year in the Life of Cancer"

So none of that does much to help answer Phil the Waiters question. But, a birthday? Sure! Why the heck not? Happy 1st Cancer-Birthday to me!

Pink Ribbons and Pink Slips: Day 13

Lucky number 13. What's so lucky about it? you ask. What's lucky is my forlough only lasted 4 days and I've been back at work for a week. Allow me to recap...

Last Saturday, we were partying the night away, celebrating the wedding of these two fine folks.  When, low and behold, our SECDEF had had about enough Congressional foolishness with this shutdown. Shortly thereafter, they passed the Pay Our Military Act, which called my butt back into work bright and early Monday morning. If only ol' Chuck could do something about the rest of the Congressional foolishness. 

Awesome wedding, y'all. You should totally get married more often.

And now I've got to do a little bragging about the good kind of pink ribbons. Today my oldest brother, niece, and her beau participated in the ACS's Making Strides Against Breast Cancer. If there's one cancer organization you support this year, let it be the American Cancer Society. They don't play favorites when it comes to cancers ('cause there are no "good" cancers, they all suck!) and I've had the benefit of their programs and services first hand.

How awesome are they?!?

Really hoping that is far less permanent and painful that it looks.

Aaaaaannnnnddddd...remember that Chicago Tribune article I mentioned a couple weeks back? <drum roll please> It's been published!

Click HERE for the full article.

Pink Ribbons and Pink Slips: Day 2

In the true nature of The Big "C" Can Suck It!, I feel a certain obligation to point out the ridiculousness and hilarity of this overlapping Pinktober and Government Shutdown. Of course, my inner social worker won't let me not pass on some good resources as I come across them. Starting with this handy dandy fact sheet on how and when to file for unemployment insurance benefits for my fellow Virginia furlough-ees. So this new mini-series I've titled "Pink Ribbons and Pink Slips" will (hopefully) be helpful, definitely be irreverent, and maybe even a little entertaining. Starting with this...

Is that a young, adorably disheveled Chris O'Dowd? Aka my other pretend boyfriend?

So what have I been doing with myself as I officially approach hour 24 of furlough (our offices were shutdown at noon yesterday)? If you've followed this blog for any amount of time, you already know the answer to that question...

Sick of this meme yet? Yea, me neither.