Today, I received the date and location of my breast reconstruction surgery: August 20, 2024, at the Queensway Carleton Hospital. Dr. Zhang of The Ottawa Hospital will continue to be my primary surgeon, assisted by Dr. Lee of the Queensway Carleton Hospital. I understand that they often do breast reconstruction surgeries together. I'm pleased with the location, as the Queensway Carleton Hospital is a 10-minute drive from my house. By comparison, the General Campus of The Ottawa Hospital is a 25-minute drive from my home, on a good day—more if there's a lot of traffic.

I am relieved to have a date. I've always felt that the sooner I have my surgery, the sooner I can begin my recovery. I'm hoping that this will be the last operation I will need to have, at least in relation to my breasts.

As a reminder, I chose to have a bilateral mastectomy because I carry a mutation in my BRCA2 gene. Not only was this genetic mutation the likely cause of my ovarian cancer, but it also put me at significant risk for the development of breast cancer. Genetic professionals estimated that risk at 50 to 85%. It was a risk I was not prepared to take, particularly after having been treated for ovarian cancer as well as unrelated perianal skin cancer. Having been through operations for both cancers plus chemotherapy for the former and radiotherapy for the latter, I wanted to avoid a third cancer. Had I developed breast cancer, I would have undergone surgery, but also potentially further chemotherapy and radiation as well as other treatments. That's why, on July 7, 2023, I underwent a bilateral mastectomy with immediate reconstruction using implants. That surgery reduced my risk of breast cancer to 5-8%.

Unfortunately, one of the two implants I received became infected. It had to go. So, on August 3, 2023, I underwent my second surgery in a month—the explant of one implant. Since then, I have lived with one inflated implant and one deflated breast. I've used a knitted knocker (three, in rotation) to balance my profile.

After these surgeries and several weeks of recovery, I continued to do everything I had done before my mastectomy and reconstruction. That included volunteering at this year's Ottawa Bluesfest. For weeks before the music festival, I wondered whether I would receive a call to schedule my surgery during Bluesfest. But such was not the case this year, as it was last year. I received word this morning of my upcoming surgery and finished my final shift as a volunteer with Bluesfest this afternoon.

Throughout the last year, I have felt like I had one foot on the dock and one foot on the boat. It's time to plant both feet firmly on the dock—to achieve parity once again.