Super behind on the blog. Trying to play catchup on my journey.
January 29, 2025
I was set to arrive at the surgery center at 5:45am. All pre-op started as soon as I arrived. I was the first case that was scheduled. They struggled getting a IV started on me and they had to stick me 3 times. The IV needed to be in my right arm, so it was a little tricky. That was no fun. Then they gave me some medicine to relax me so they could inject the dye that was needed to look at the lymph nodes. That was no fun. I still was very alert and it was uncomfortable for sure. Once that was completed, I was able to say my goodbyes and was then wheeled back to the operating room around 7:15am. Surgery lasted about an hour and thirty minutes. They anticipated 2 hours so everything went well and smooth. The doctor came and spoke with Austin, said everything went well and that the 2 lymh nodes that were taken pathology did not see no signs of cancer cells while in there, but a full pathology report will be given at 1 week preop visit. Once I was in recovery, Austin has me on video asking numerous times how many lymph nodes did they take. Apparently, I was really worried about that. It became a running joke for the day. As soon as I drank and ate some crackers they were sending me on my way. We were on the road by 11:00am.
Road to Recovery
Recovery has been manageable. Very uncomfortable, but pain has been bearable for the most part. Sleeping comfortably has been hard, having to slow down, not lift over 5lbs and having to tolerate the drains, have been some of the challenges. We went for my first pre-opt appointment a week after surgery. Doctor was very pleased with how the incisions and swelling looked. Drains were doing what they were supposed to and overall the healing was going well. Then the bad news came... Pathology report showed that there was still residual cancer in both lymph nodes that were taken. The cancer in the breast was gone, which did prove the chemo did do it's job. I was just super bummed, everything wasn't gone. I was so sure that it was all gone, especially after the good report we got after surgery. I guess this was just a bump in the road, to add to my story. I can't lie, mentally I was drained and felt like everything I went thru was for nothing. I felt like the pure life was suck from me. All the questions came to my mind, is the cancer anywhere else now, will radiation do the trick and the list goes on. My surgeon had us to go meet with the radiologist in Greenville to meet him and get more details about radiation. I was able to ask him more questions. He assured me that he felt like the radiation would get what was left in the lymph node area. He also, stated that he did not feel like taking more lymph nodes would be a good thing and could cause more problems like lymphedema. He did say it would get discussed at the tumor board and I could get more answers once I saw my oncologist. The ride home was pretty quiet.
I followed up with my oncologist the following week. I was prepared and had a list of questions and concerns I wanted to discuss. She also assured me that this was common to still see some cancer and that she felt good about radiation getting the remaining. We also talked about all the different medicine possibilities I could take after surgery for several years. The possibility of taking my ovaries and or hysterectomy was also discussed as well. Some may not know, but one of the well known drugs tamoxifen that is used with breast cancer patients after treatment can potentially cause uterine or endometrial cancer. So still trying to decide what route to take. For now I choose to focus on getting thru radiation.
Radiation update to come soon...
