Wishing you a very successful surgery and speedy recovery, dear brave Deepa - thank you for sharing your journey with all of us. Your courage is palpable. Love, Moulsari
Oh Deepa, this is wonderful! This is so my relationship with my former hated tummy, now diep flapped into my current, reconstructed, post-cancer breasts too! And while I had come to terms with it by age 46, In spite of the gifts of courage and fearlessness cancer gave me by making me look my mortality in the face, what you wrote made me realize that I would have also been totally ok if I had been able to keep that hated tummy. (Well, keep it in its original place.)
I am looking forward to hearing your thoughts over the years of your new relationship with your body after this. Curiously for me, over the past 8 years since my surgery, I don't think of my tummy as gone, but somehow as if it is still my tummy, just in a different place. It may just be me, but I think of my breasts fondly and affectionately as my stomach, or maybe both my stomach and breasts at the same time, still a part of me. If that makes any sense at all.
It made me truly grateful for the first time in my life that I had it, (Yikes! That shows how horrible our socialization as women was) and could be used, that it is still be with me.
Good luck tomorrow! May your recovery be as smooth as possible! Much love to you.
P.S. I have been so impressed with my young-adult daughter and her friends regarding body positivity. I don't know if they are representative of all Millennials and Gen Zers, but they embrace their fleshy bodies, and wear all the revealing, cute styles us Gen Xers with tummies would never DARE to wear. Are things changing? I hope so!
Thank you Deepa for this letter. I cried and laugh, you touched something real in my heart. Sending you love 💜💜💜
I'm really glad to hear that it resonated with you. Thanks for reading.
Wishing you a very successful surgery and speedy recovery, dear brave Deepa - thank you for sharing your journey with all of us. Your courage is palpable. Love, Moulsari
Thanks for your kind wishes Moulsari! It went super well and now I'm looking forward to deep rest and recovery at home.
Excellent news! Rest well and we'll see you on the other side. :)
Oh Deepa, this is wonderful! This is so my relationship with my former hated tummy, now diep flapped into my current, reconstructed, post-cancer breasts too! And while I had come to terms with it by age 46, In spite of the gifts of courage and fearlessness cancer gave me by making me look my mortality in the face, what you wrote made me realize that I would have also been totally ok if I had been able to keep that hated tummy. (Well, keep it in its original place.)
I am looking forward to hearing your thoughts over the years of your new relationship with your body after this. Curiously for me, over the past 8 years since my surgery, I don't think of my tummy as gone, but somehow as if it is still my tummy, just in a different place. It may just be me, but I think of my breasts fondly and affectionately as my stomach, or maybe both my stomach and breasts at the same time, still a part of me. If that makes any sense at all.
It made me truly grateful for the first time in my life that I had it, (Yikes! That shows how horrible our socialization as women was) and could be used, that it is still be with me.
Good luck tomorrow! May your recovery be as smooth as possible! Much love to you.
P.S. I have been so impressed with my young-adult daughter and her friends regarding body positivity. I don't know if they are representative of all Millennials and Gen Zers, but they embrace their fleshy bodies, and wear all the revealing, cute styles us Gen Xers with tummies would never DARE to wear. Are things changing? I hope so!
Thanks Marcia. It's always interesting to hear the experiences of women who've undergone the DIEP flap procedure... there seem to be so few!