Flourishing in Life: Two Years After My Breast Amputation

PLEASE NOTE!! This may be too much to know or to read for many of you, but I feel I need to speak up. My voice and my writing may make a difference to someone reading this!

It was a Tuesday morning in early spring of 2024. April 9th, 2024 to be exact was the day I lost both my breasts. The word "Mastectomy" still sounds too mild, too toned down, too gentle for the reality of an amputation, even now. Why is it that only breast amputations have a special name in the medical community and general population? When you lose you foot is is a foot amputation, when you lose you arm it is an arm amputation, when you lose you pinkie it is a pinkie amputation, but when you lose you breast it is a mastectomy. I believe the term mastectomy is used to lull or placate people into thinking it is just a general surgical procedure to get rid of something bad in the breast/s. I am in a few support groups and have even read about others who have endured breast amputations, that people told them they were lucky to get a free augmentation!? What?? Are you kidding me!?

Two years after undergoing a double breast amputation ("mastectomy"), I am finally healed enough to even share openly that this was the surgery I went through on that beautiful spring day in 2024. You see, these body parts were part of what made me me. They gave my a special body profile, they pleased Kevin, and they nourished Sidney as a baby. They made me a woman. And just like that, they were removed and gone. I opted for a flat esthetic closure instead of a mastectomy with reconstruction. Just the thought of having something that was either formed from my own abdominal body fat (Diep flap reconstruction) or having silicone implants placed, didn't sit right with me. I also didn't want to have to deal with yet another thing that could go awry. Even though the tumors were only in my left breast, I opted to have both breasts removed, as I thought is would look better.

I walked into the surgical center early that morning, for the last time being a complete, beautiful woman. I walked out of the surgical center in the early afternoon, stripped of womanhood, flat, and in a daze. Two drains with pouches were dangling from the wounds. I received pain medication which I took religiously. Two calf massagers were attached to my legs, to ensure that I wouldn't develop DVT. My bed was adapted with wedges to ensure I would only lie on my back. The long list of do's and don'ts had been drilled into me by the surgeon and the nurses. But my emotions, my spirit, my mental being were afloat and had not been addressed by anyone.

Of course those of you who know me well, have seen that I have recovered well from this trauma. However, it was HARD work. I refuse to be defined by the breast cancer I went through! It is only one chapter in my story, not the title of my life! God in his infinite wisdom has helped me heal. He used many people and women who have gone through breast cancer, the Faith Through Fire Survivorship Bootcamp, The Bluebird Cancer Retreat, the book "Dear God, They Say it is Cancer" by Janet Thompson, the Bible study "Fully Alive" by Susie Larson, and the wonderful book I just finished listening to "The Life-Changing Art of Self-Brain Surgery: Connecting Neuroscience and Faith to Radically Transform Your Life" by Dr. W. Lee Warren (a neurosurgeon). This trauma caused the greatest healing that has ever has happened in my soul to come about, and I'm thankful.

When I woke up this morning, I had forgotten the significance this day has for me. This makes me so happy! It means that I have moved forward. But then I saw that it would have been my dear friend Diane's birthday today. She passed away this January. She had battled numerous forms of cancer (twice breast cancer). Diane was one of those special people God sent my way to support me and listen to me. And when I remembered, I was overcome with thankfulness. Thankfulness for how God uses anything and everything to draw us closer. He redeems all of the suffering that comes our way. He used my trauma to make me reevaluate my life and helped me to change my priorities. He strengthened our marriage and made Kevin and me thankful for small blessings daily. And God put the idea of training for my very first triathlon ever in my head! Yes, Kevin and I have been training for a sprint triathlon (3.1 Mile Run/Walk, 3.5 Mile Kayak paddle, 9 Mile Bicycle ride) since January of this year.

My trauma has pushed me out of my comfort zone. It has enabled me to see things that used to be hard (exercise, eating enough vegetables, avoiding processed food, praying for people, just dropping all I had planned for the day to help someone, and just enjoying simple activities with Kevin and seeing them as dates instead) as things I have been granted more time to do! So if you are wondering why it is that I am FLOURISHING, the reason is that I have submitted my new life to God and am overflowing with gratitude.

Besides God's 10 commandments, I also choose to follow Dr. W. Lee Warrens 10 commandments now. The "10 Commandments of Self-Brain Surgery" is a mental health framework developed by neurosurgeon Dr. Lee Warren. These principles integrate neuroscience with faith to help individuals rewire their minds and break free from toxic thought patterns.

The 10 commandments are:

1. Refuse Your Own Demise: I must relentlessly refuse to participate in my own mental or emotional destruction.

2. Feelings are Not Facts: I must believe that feelings are chemical events in my brain, not absolute truths.

3. Automatic Thoughts are Untrue: I must believe that most of my first, automatic thoughts are false or unhelpful

4. The Mind is in Charge: I must believe that my mind has control over my brain’s neurochemistry.

5. Surgery is the Mechanism: I must believe that "Self-Brain Surgery" is the actual mechanism of life transformation, not just a metaphor.

6. Love Tomorrow More: I must value my future more than I hate my current temporary discomfort.

7. Stop Overcomplicating Life: I must stop "making an operation" out of every small struggle or challenge.

8. Break Generational Cycles: I must not perpetuate or start harmful behavioral issues in my family line.

9. Believe in Improvement: I must believe that I am consistently getting better at what I am doing.

10. Thoughts Become Things: I must understand that my repeated thoughts eventually manifest as physical realities in my brain and life.

So on this day, April 9th, 2026, I celebrate! I celebrate God's goodness and mercy, his love and compassion, his care and patience. And I hope you will be able to do that same for your life. God is the best composter: Nothing that happens to us goes to waste!

He restores my soul. He leads me in paths of righteousness for his name's sake.

Psalm 23:3

God bless until next time,

Wiebke