2nd Post Surgery Appointment

Today was my second follow up appointment after surgery. The official pathology report wasn't back yet but Dr. Rosenthal had talked with the pathologist. The way she explained it is that the area where my tumor originally was measured about 4.5 cm. Most of that area is clean of cancer cells now but unfortunately there were a few scattered spots about 1 mm that were still cancerous. They also found one other spot of cancer outside the main tumor area near my lymph nodes. Of the 13 lymph nodes that they took, 3 of them had cancer in them. This information confirms that we did the right thing doing a mastectomy and taking all the lymph nodes under my arm. Now that the cancer has been removed hopefully the radiation can clean up any microscopic cells that remain and I won't have to go through this ever again.

Today's good news is that Dr. Rosenthal removed both of my drains. The amount of fluid had to be below a certain level. My levels were barely below. The skin around where the drains came out was red and irritated. Dr. Rosenthal decided that it was better to take the drains out now before they became infected or more irritated. Hopefully my body will be able to reabsorb the remaining fluid, if not it will have to be drained next week with a needle. Needless to say I don't want that to happen but I am glad to have the tubes out. The incision didn't look as bad as I thought it would. Even seeing where the tubes came out wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. It did hurt a little when the tubes were pulled out. One drain was fed under the skin up by my collar bone. The second drain was fed under my arm. Both drains came out down by the bottom of my rib cage. My left side is still swollen and numb. The swelling should go down over the next few weeks. The feeling will probably take longer to return. It could take months or years before it all comes back, or possibly never. There is no way to know.

I don't have to go back for another check up until next Monday. That is probably when Dr. Rosenthal will decide when she wants me to start radiation. I wouldn't be surprised if I start radiation two weeks from now. I would like to have my port removed before I start radiation. Dr. Rosenthal wanted to confirm with Dr. Gray that based on the pathology report that he doesn't think I need to do any additional chemo. She doesn't think I need it but before I have the port removed she wants to double check. I will probably call Dr. Gray's office in a few days to see if they have talked. That way I can get an appointment with Dr. Jordan to take it out. I am not looking forward to another O.R. visit or to having another area that needs to heal but I would really rather not wait until after radiation. I doubt they would want to remove it while I am doing radiation because it might be harder to heal.

There are several more people that I need to thank. Thank you to everyone who provided meals for my family this week. Even with the holiday weekend there were still people willing to help. Thank you. I also want to thank Barbara for her help. She ironed the button down shirts that I bought to wear after surgery. It has been nice to have neatly pressed shirts that were easy to get into. And finally I need to thank my Mom's friend Sheri, my sisters Kristi and Katrina, their kids and two young friends, Annie and her sister. They have all spent several hours working hard at my house getting it clean so that I wouldn't have to worry about it. My house has not been so clean in several years. They took care of things that I just never have the time or energy to get to. Thank you, thank you, thank you. I can never thank you enough. I am truly blessed with all the support that has been provided to us.