The cherry on the top

Tuesday at 6 a.m. I go in for reconstruction surgery part 2. This surgery has elicited many jokes from both husband and close friends, although the whole thing is not really that funny. You see, when one has a mastectomy, the whole breast is removed. After the implants are put in place, the boobs are in place as well, but that's it. Smooth, perfect-to-wear-without-a-bra boobs. So now it's time for the lights to be turned on. You can only imagine why this can be funny. :) I am a little anxious before the surgery, but I am not nearly as obsessed with the details as I was with the previous surgeries. And I really don't know why. I figure the surgeon has done this a million times and I can just let him do the best job he can. How does the surgeon form a new nipple? Imagine an incision similar to a three-leaf clover, where the two side leaves fold toward each other to form the cylinder and the top one to cover the top. Then he fills the inside of the cylinder with skin grafts and some other fatty tissue, and sows it all back together. After 6 months or so, when the skin has completely healed, the aureola is tatooed on, and then the job is finished. Or at least until it's time to replace the implants, because, you know, they don't last a lifetime. I figure I should really consider running for Ms. Senior Nevada, given the odds that I will be a perky 80-year old...