Round 2 of surgery went well. They removed 7 lymph nodes and sent them off to the pathologist
for testing. Should have the results back in a few days.

This surgery was a little more painful then the first, which I pretty much suspected. I came home with a soft plastic drainage bulb with a plug opening at the end of the tubing connected to the incision area collecting fluid to reduce the swelling and prevent infection. It looks like a little hand grenade secured with a safety pin attached to that godawful jobst bra. (yeah, they gave me another one to burn)

So for the next 5 days it’s me, and the little hand grenade, until it’s removed. I’m beginning to wonder why I just didn’t have them chop the whole damn thing off.

Only kidding, I just had to vent a bit. I’m just feeling a little frustrated right now.
There has to be a better way to start spending my weekends.

We met with my Oncologist Dr.GW today, and at this time she doesn’t suggest inserting a chemo port
during surgery tomorrow. She wants to wait until the lab reports come back on the lymph nodes they
remove before making a decision on chemo. So for now the treatment plan is to have 6 weeks of daily
radiation followed by hormone therapy.

I had a follow-up appointment with Dr.E.D today he received my pathology report back from the
lumpectomy surgery I had on June 13. It showed I have Stage I Invasive Ductal Carcinoma.

The tumor was 1.5 cm in size with a 7mm margin around negative for carcinoma. Unfortunately, 1 of the
lymph nodes of the 2 that were removed showed abnormal cells, so they will need to go back in and
remove another 8-10 lymph nodes to make sure it hasn’t spread anywhere else.

This 1 bad lymph node now brings up the question whether to treat with chemo/no chemo.

We will meet with the Oncologist on June 25. If the chemo oncologist believes I will need chemo
Dr.E.D will put in a port for the chemo at the same time he removes the lymph nodes.

I’m scheduled for surgery on June 27.

This is really getting crazy now!

Tonight I was able to take a shower for the first time since the surgery I had this past Friday. I mentioned to my husband that I was going to remove the dressing, and examine the damage, then hop in the shower, when he asked if I’d need any help.

To which I replied, “only if your ready to take a peek.”

As I stood in front of the mirror with my husband facing me to the side, I said, “Ok, here goes,” my hands began to shake as I unzipped the bra. He reached over and slipped the left strap down, and in succession you could hear the call of the wild, “HOOLLLLYYYY CRRRAAAAPP!”

I had a 3 1/2” – 4” incision across what once was my areola, and a 2 1/2” incision under my arm. Ouch, suddenly I could feel the pain.

But let me tell you removing that Jobst bra was like deflating a helium balloon. Suddenly my neck shrunk down about a foot and I was able to balance my head on my spinal column again, and that sucker went in the trash. It was either that or take it out on my front lawn and burn it; the trash was closer.

I arrived at 6:45am for the sentinel lymph node mapping which is performed a couple hours prior to the surgery. The surgeon injected a dye to my areola to map out which lymph node drains first from the tumor to prevent the removal of unneeded nodes, allowing the surgeon to remove the nodes that are stained by the dye. These are the nodes that are sent to the pathologists to determine if the cancer has spread.

My husband and daughter were allowed to sit in the room with me until it was time for me to go into surgery, I was then given a general anesthetic and put to sleep. (ha ha… sounds like I was being euthanized doesn’t it?) I then went off to sleep and don’t remember being rolled into or seeing the inside of the operating room. I woke up in the recovery room wearing what they call a Jobst bra, which is similar to a sports bra but feels like your wearing a girdle around your breast it’s extremely tight and confined. Later in the evening as the anesthetics numbness wore off I experienced some discomfort, which really wasn’t to bad considering what had been done. I would have to say the worst part was having to wear the Jobst bra and being so confined having to lay on my back.

They removed my left areola and nipple, along with two lymph nodes underneath my left arm that are now off to the pathologist for testing. I have a follow up appointment with Dr. E.D next Thursday.

Until then I’m praying for cancer free results from the pathology report.