How to Shock a Customs Official

In the month since my last posting, I got married and went to the Caribbean for 2 weeks. The wedding was wonderful and the trip to St. Vincent and the Grenadines/Barbados was amazing. The stress of planning a wedding went away. I got sun burnt and drank plenty o' rum from a bevy of drink selections. I relaxed on the patio of our cottage enjoying the view of our garden and the sailboats in the bay. Hopefully we will return soon.

Before, during and the weeks immediately following the surgery, Brandon and I had put the honeymoon planning on hold as we were unsure about how I would feel and didn't have any details on the possibility of adjuvant therapy. Luckily all the doctors said it would be ok to go away. My full range of my arm's motions returned almost in full about 6 weeks after surgery. After we got the go-ahead from the doctors, we planned our trip at the last minute. Luckily the cottage in Bequai was still available and we were able to get a few hotel deals for the days in St. Vincent and Barbados.

My energy and strength were not at pre-surgery levels but in general I will say that I'm in good health. When we climbed the volcano in St. Vincent, it took me 2 1/2 hours rather than the predicted 1 3/4 hours. When we went snorkeling in the Tobago Cays, my arm became sore and tires more quickly than it usually does when I'm swimming. But I was still able to participate in these activities, and to me, that is the most important thing of all. Otherwise, I wouldn't have seen the clouds move away from the center of the volcano to see all the way inside or the turtle swimming the coral reef -- two of my favorite moments of the vacation.

I do have another favorite moment of the vacation that I will share. I have 2 prosthetic breasts. One breast is all cotton (the softie) which I've been using for about a month now (mastectomy patients need to wait about 8 weeks before using a true breast prosthesis). The other breast is silicone and very heavy. I don't wear it very often because of the weight, and I have only recently reached the 8 week mark (although I was given the ok to start wearing it at 6 weeks -- I must be a quick healer!). During the vacation I stored the silicone boob in its carrying case, a medium-sized blue vinyl box. I never placed the blue box in my checked bag on the airplane because I didn't want it to get lost and because it would have taken up a lot of room. So when traveling, the box was always in my carry-on bag.

At the Barbados airport customs area, for reasons unknown to us, the "I have nothing to declare" line was closed, and all passengers were required to go through the "I have something to declare" line. When it was our turn, the official questioned us about the food we might be bringing. We told her we had no food. She began to rummage through my carry-on bag, and she came upon the the zipped up blue vinyl box. She asked, "What is this?" and began to fiddle with the zipper. I responded, "I had a mastectomy 2 months ago, and that is my fake boob." She immediately halted, took a second, looked at me and said, "You're done. Go on."

In no way can I fully express the humor and bizarreness of that moment, but it was one of the most amusing moments of the trip for me. It still makes me smile.