Silicone is My Friend

Pink beach morning glories seem like a good way to start. Something cheery for something I despise. When I first had my mastectomy, a friend who had it done before me said "Remember, silicone is your friend."

When given the option of having reconstructive surgery, I decided not to go that route. I didn't want to have more surgeries. I didn't want to use the muscles which were designed to do one thing be used for making a fake breast. It just didn't seem worth it. I didn't want to use either silicone or saline implants....so, I use a prosthesis.

I hate going in to get new ones. A couple of weeks ago, the seam on my form gave way. My husband fixed it with some of his super-duper chemicals from work (he's in the aerospace industry). While it cured, I dropped back to using my old one which had been repaired from an incident with the cat....lots of little pin-pricks are the result of her being overly rambunctious.

Last week, I accidently dropped it...and it split in two oozing silicone out. The other one with it's seam repaired I was sure wasn't going to last very long, so since the prosthesis place was having a "customer appreciation" day in honor of Valentines day, I went in to get a new one.

After 11 years of this, you'd think I'd be used to it. I hate it. It's getting better, because not all the bras are industrial strength ones....they're getting prettier, but still. . . Insult was added to injury when my FSA card didn't work. When I finally got done with the transaction, I called the insurance company which administers the flex spending account, and discovered that for some reason the shop, which only sells items for women who are undergoing chemo-therapy and who have had mastectomies and lumpectomies, is catagorized as "clothing for men and women, " instead of durable medical goods.

Still...my experience is better than one of my friends who had a double mastectomy last year. Her insult was that her insurance allowed her one prosthesis per year. One. Even though she had had a double mastectomy, she could only get one form. Obviously, someone wasn't thinking when they wrote up this provision.

Even with insurance, buying forms and mastectomy bras is expensive. Just for fun, I looked on ebay. Sure enough, you can get them there. Some are used. Some are new. And...I never realized that I shared my need with men who are cross dressers and drag queens....so some are....very colorful and anatomically correct.

As much as I don't like doing this....I have to repeat....thank God for silicone, and silicone is my friend.