Information Update (Cancer & Surgery)

Well I guess it is time for an update regarding this whole surgery thing. As most of you know the biopsy came back as cancer (right now it is classed as Stage I). Max and I went to see the Breast Care Coordinators and the surgeon on Tuesday and received a lot of really good information dealing with what is facing us in the near future.

Since the lump they took out was cancerous, I not only have to have my lymph nodes checked, but I have to have more tissue removed from the location where the cancer was found. When a lump is removed it is a requirement there be 2 to 3 millimeters negative (cancer free) margin around the cancerous tissue and that was not the case with what they removed from me (there was less than a millimeter of negative margin). So now the surgeon needs go back in the same incision and remove more tissue to give them the correct negative margin. Why did they not get it the first time? That was my question as well. They only knew to take what they were after according to the mammogram. The tissue that was removed was the correct tissue, but they did not know it was going to be cancerous; therefore, they did not know what margin they were looking for or needed. Since what they removed was cancerous, they now have to check the lymph nodes to ascertain if any cancer traveled to that area.

So here is the rundown as I know it – I am scheduled for tests (blood and EKG) and have a pre-op appointment on April 13th. My surgery is scheduled for “sometime” on April 24th. This will be a lumpectomy and lymph node removal surgery. To find the correct lymph nodes to be removed (the ones the affected area drains to) I have to be injected with a radioactive dye prior to my surgery so the surgeon will know the correct nodes to remove. I am scheduled to receive my injection April 24th @ 9:30 A.M. and I will not know the exact time of my surgery until the Friday prior to Monday the 24th. The radioactive dye they are inserting takes several hours to move to the node area – so my surgery will be later, but I will not have the exact time until the 21st.

The only good news about all this is this time it will not be done with local anesthetics! I will be put out and will not have to FEEL any of what they are doing (unlike the previous biopsy I went through). The down side is that removing lymph nodes tends to be a painful surgery with a painful recovery. That is what they make pain pills and ice cream for – RIGHT?

Once everything is completed and all the appropriate tests have been run, all the information will be forwarded to an oncologist who will then devise a treatment plan based on the findings. As it stands right now I know I will have to do five weeks of radiotherapy (radiation treatment) and what else (hormone therapy or chemotherapy) will depend on the results obtained from the completed surgery.

So now you all know pretty much what Max and I know, but if you have any questions and don’t want to do the internet research, feel free to ask. I really don’t want to talk this to death, but emails (drae@sbcglobal.net) will be answered.

All you women out there who have NOT had a mammogram in the last year – GO GET ONE! EARLY DETECTION SAVES LIVES!

Thanks for all the good thoughts and prayers.
I love you all!

Later . . .