Getting Over the Bump in the Road

I must say I was totally shocked when I got home and looked at myself in the mirror for the first time. For this surgery, they don’t sew you up and cover everything with bandages anymore (or at least they didn’t for me). Instead I had a blue glue or adhesive painted on me to keep things sterile and held together. Thus, my incisions were right there in front of me to see. I’m sure this can be quite earth shattering for someone who is squeamish around blood and injuries. I have dissected all sorts of things through my science studies so I actually thought it was pretty cool, just surprising though. I should tell you a little about what they did in my surgery (as described by my doctor). They removed the main part of the tumor which was just above my right nipple. He made the incision right along the edge of the areola or darker part of the breast and then removed some tissue from around all the edges of the tumor. The tissue was put under a microscope right there in the operating room to make sure that all of the edges were “clean” so that they could feel confident that they had removed all of the cancerous cells. They also inject a dye through the same duct that is infected with the cancer cells and they follow the path of this dye towards the lymph glands so that they know which ones would most likely be infected if the cancer cells have spread. They then proceeded to remove one of these lymph nodes through a second incision that was about an inch and a half from my underarm and send it off for testing. I was able to go back to work just two days after surgery with very little discomfort. I think I am probably one of the lucky ones as I’ve known women that have had many problems with fluid drainage and pain after surgery. Just note that it isn’t always a bad experience. I returned to see my doctor just once after surgery. Because the University is a teaching hospital, my doctor asked if three students could come in while he examined me. I’m not super modest in medical situations. In fact, when my son was born, we invited one of our best friends, who is gay, into the delivery room as he said the only thing he regretted missing in life was getting to see the birth of a baby. The students who came in to see my surgical scars were rather cute. There were two girls, one of which was right up there, looking around and being very inquisitive. There was also a boy though who seemed clearly uneasy with the whole thing. Hopefully he’ll get over that if he ever hopes to treat women in his medical endeavors. I think my doctor likes to show off in front of the students as he went over everything they found very thoroughly and I left feeling confident that he had gotten all of the cancer cells out in that area. I actually felt sad when leaving the doctor’s office. I’m hoping to never have to go back there again but these people were so supportive and kind. I did send an edible bouquet to the doctor’s office after this last visit as a “thank you”. Susan called and said that my doctor was gloating and carrying it around the office to brag to the other doctors, showing them what he had gotten. He was so funny and cute that way. It may not be foremost on your mind but don’t forget to thank those who help you along your journey. Many doctors and nurses never get to hear this when they have had such a great impact on your life. Something else happened that wasn’t really supposed to but it did help ease my mind quite a bit. The nurse at the University sent my tumor to California for Oncotype testing. This is a test that looks at the genetics of the tumor cells and is an indicator of the likelihood that the cancer has or will spread to other places. The makers of the test say that the results are only valid for breast cancer where nothing has been found in the lymph nodes. Because my lymph node did have cancer cells in it, my tumor tissue should never have been sent in for Oncotype testing. I really think that maybe the University or my insurance company may have a research relationship with Genomic Health who runs these tests though as they proceeded to test my tissue and insurance paid for the whole thing. My Oncotype score was a 12 which is very low. Anything under 15 is considered excellent and I left the doctor’s office at the U thinking that I may have escaped any further treatment. Oh yes, I was wrong.