(This is one of the more pay it forward kind of posts– far more interesting to someone approaching this surgery themselves than to most. Feel free to skim if you’d rather not hear all about compression bras!)
The kids were back at school today, so I set off to get myself ready for this week’s surgery. Step one: coffee with a friend who’s been there. She brought along some encouragement, friendly advice, and these maxi skirts. For the record, I think some people look adorable in a maxi skirt, but I’ve never liked one on myself. I was thrilled that she would loan these to me since I didn’t see myself wearing them past the four week mark when I get to lose the almost to the knees bike-short style compression gear. When I got home, I set out to trying them, seeing which tops might go with them and cover the compression bras that I already have (though I’ll come home from the hospital with more)– the “nice” one I got at Nordstrom but couldn’t really wear after the first surgery, and the awful one from the hospital. The one from Nordstrom is a bit more streamlined, but it’s cut a lot higher and didn’t have quite enough compression the last time around. The icky hospital one is lower cut but has a lot of velcro that bunches and flips up in really awkward ways. To deal with that the last time around, I took to wearing a sports bra over it– just to keep all the flaps down. My secret weapon? An XL undershirt from the little girls’ section. Tank tops from the women’s section are too low cut and show the bra, but these from the little girls section are great for layering to cover the top of the bra. The last step will have to be all those scarves I wore to cover my bald head last fall, wrapping those around my neck will help hide some of the bulkiness of the bra. I was lucky to be able to wear bulky sweaters after my last surgery, but I’m not willing to wait for colder weather for this surgery, so when it comes to my wardrobe, I think it will just be a make it work moment.
Run Lipstick Chemo 