The Ripple Effect

The Ripple Effect

🌼 Date: Monday, March 30, 2026

⚡ Energy: 😬 Frustrated but Trying to Stay Calm

❤️‍🩹 Status: Schedule Chaos

😢 Outlook: One More Day of Waiting

Well… I was patient all weekend.

And for those of you who know me well, you know that patience is not exactly my strongest personality trait.

So after spending the entire weekend doing my best to stay calm and trust the process, I got a phone call this morning from the plastics office.

My appointment for today?

Cancelled.

But don’t worry — they had an opening on Thursday.

Yeah… that doesn’t work for me.

We leave Wednesday morning at 5:00 AM for my birthday vacation, and the morning after we get back I am scheduled to start radiation treatments.

So this appointment needed to be today or tomorrow.

(Truthfully, I still think it should have been Friday when I called… but I am not a doctor and apparently no one was interested in my professional opinion.)

My fear in all of this is that my left expander has changed shape. It feels softer and possibly smaller than it did when I was measured and scanned for my radiation treatments.

Which means my brain immediately goes to the worst possible scenario.

Did I just mess everything up?

Because if the size or shape has changed enough, that could mean starting the radiation planning process all over again.

And that tiny little change would ripple through everything.

Radiation treatments.
Refilling the right expander.
Finishing the left side fills.
Reconstruction surgery that we’re hoping will happen in November or December.

Then there is still the nipple reconstruction, and finally the tattooing of the areola and nipples.

Every little setback may seem insignificant in the moment…

But that tiny ripple becomes a huge wave by the time it reaches the end of this journey.

We have worked so hard to orchestrate this very carefully planned timeline, and I have already put my life on hold to walk this unexpected road.

So when something outside of my control threatens to derail that plan, I panic a little.

Okay… maybe more than a little.

I think the nurse on the phone could hear all of that running through my head, because somehow she managed to work some sort of medical office dark magic and squeeze me into an appointment tomorrow.

So now…

I wait.

Again.

Another 24 hours of the waiting game.

Which, if we’re being honest, might be the hardest part of this entire journey.

💗 Tina –
One Badass Day at a Time