Surgery...Check

Procedure: Left Breast Lumpectomy, Sentinal Node Biopsy, Lymphoscintigraphy.
Highlights: Sentinel node was cancer-free, waiting on pathology reports from Lumpectomy to know more about if I am in remission and if we were able to get enough margin/tissue around the tumor.

Yesterday was a fabulous day, really, who would have thought?  A year ago I was so afraid of needles or any type of medical treatments.  The thought of surgery, even just a month ago, was keeping me up at night.

Play by Play: 
Parents picked me up at 5:30am yesterday and we arrived at West Hills Hospital right on time at 6am.  Went to the fifth floor, outpatient surgery.  I was checked in and prepped for the day.  By 6:30am I was wheeled down to the 2nd floor by Thelma Reeves, a wonderful women who was with me for a few hours.  She took me straight to the mammography room to prepare me for the local anesthetic in my left breast (in two separate places), the wire guide being inserted and then the lympathic node die inserted by needed in four places.  Everything was going as planned up until this point, when the Doctor responsible for inserting the guide wire wasn't positive that he would be able to see clearly where the guide wire should be inserted by way of a mammogram (for two reasons- where my tumor was located since it is so close to my chest wall and because the tumor was no longer present).  So, we went to plan B which was the ultrasound room.  The ultrasound nurse spent about a half hour looking for the tumor site and at that point they knew that ultrasound was not the best method, so we went back to the mammography room.  They felt confident after having four doctors working together that they could find the tumor site and insert the guide wire in the correct location for my surgical oncologist, Dr. Schreir.  So, lets talk about how they insert the guide wire.  Ladies, for those of you that have had a mammogram before, you will appreciate this....  They kept me in the mammogram machine for at least 20 minutes, inserting needles and the guide wire, while squishing my boob to death.  Ouch!

After local anesthesia to the breast,  wire localization and lympathic node die, I was on my way back up to the outpatient surgery recovery room for an hour to let the die set in... this is where the hour massage came in.  However, at this time, we were already running late for surgery since the first part of the morning took much longer than expected.

Then comes Dr. Tony, the radiologist, he was responsible for removing my sentinel node during surgery.  He was so sweet and comforting. We spent about an hour together before surgery, I was in the cardiovascular ward in a scanning machine so that he could find out exactly where my lymph nodes were.  He marked me up so he knew where he was going to go in and take my sentinel node.

By this time, I had been on a gurney since 6am, rolled around and onto three different floors. Tony is wheeling me to the 2nd floor, with my parents following behind us.  He was rushing to get me to the operating room since we were already past my surgery start time.  I guess everything was moving so quickly, that it caught me by surprise when they wheeled me into the OR without my parents.  There was no time to give them a kiss and tell them that I loved them, so they are behind me and I can't see them and I am wheeled off, so I have a 5 minute cry.  Up until that point, I had been laughing, smiling and enjoying the morning.  Learning about all the doctors working on me and being young with cancer which is rare, many people want to share the people they know that are young with cancer. So, I listened to their stories and enjoyed them.

So I am in the OR.  At this point, I had planned to seriously medicated so I wouldn't be scared/anxious about where I was.  However, the morning sessions had gone so well that I opted out of taking anything and wanted to try it on my own.  I am SO proud and happy that I made that choice.  Met with Dr. Schreir, he marked me up so he knew where he was operating and showed me exactly what was going to happen.  So, in order to be able to see how much skin I would be loosing, where he was making his incision, etc. I had to look down and see a huge and very long wire sticking out of my chest.  Met with the anesthelogist, had a great OR nurse, they pumped me with meds, told me to think of a happy place and I was on my way to surgery.

Surgery started at 12:15 (original start time was 11am) and was two hours.  I woke up in the OR recovery room and felt great.  Once I was fully awake, the recovery room nurse told me that Dr. Schreir was worried that I had hematoma (blood cluster forming inside where surgery was perfored)  and would be back within the hour or so to check on me and either release me or take me back into surgery.  I was so hungry, so thirsty, but they couldn't give me anything since there was a chance I would be heading back into the operating room.  I made friends with the nurse and she snuck my parents in to see me for a few minutes which was so comforting.  The OR recovery room, is typically just for someone to stay in while they wake up and then they are either taken to a secondary recovery room or their hospital room.  It is just a staging area.  Well, I got to camp out there for over two hours.  I saw people being wheeled in and out from surgery, moaning and groaning and acting funny.  It was lovely, but I made friends with the nurses and waited patiently for Dr. Schreir to return.  He did confirm that I did not have hematoma and I was then sent back up to outpatient surgery recovery room and soon released at 6pm.

After surgery Dr. Schreir met with my parents to update them on the outcome of surgery.  He informed them that he had to take more tissue than expected, so cosmetically the surgery didn't have the outcome we had hoped for, but at the end of the day, I have my breast and for me that is all that matters.

My parents were only with me about an hour over the entire day (6am to 6pm). They waited in waiting rooms for the entire day, never leaving.  My Dad knew that I would feel more confident throughout the day if I knew they were as close as they could be to me.  So, they never got up to eat or do anything beside sit and wait.  My parents are so dedicated and fabulous!

The hospital staff was truly spectacular!

I was home by 7pm and felt really fantastic.  Had lots of energy, was in great spirits and enjoyed feeling good. Didn't feel any pain, just discomfort so took half the pain meds I was supposed to be just to be proactive.  I have a huge bandage all around my chest and then bandages around the site they removed the lymph node.

The bandage comes off today and I will be in a sports bra for some time.  I am icing the entire day today and will be taking my pain meds.  In more discomfort that I was last night, but the discomfort isn't bad.  I just can't move my left arm at all, or I feel pain. My breast hurts much less than does my armpit where they removed the lymp node.

Dr. Schreir said that we are still unsure if I am in remission/cancer-free.  I will have to wait for my pathology reports to come in and will be meeting with him on Wednesday to get more information. He reminded me before surgery that there is a possibility that he isn't able to get clear margins (all the tissue surrounding where the tumor was) and there is always a possibility that a mastectomy is required.  But, will know more next week.  But, we do know that I did not have cancer in my sentinel node and no more than the one node was removed which is fantastic news.

So many of you contacted me yesterday to see how things were going, thank you so much for supporting me every step of the way through this journey.  I feel so loved and it makes it so much easier for me to stay positive and think only happy thoughts.