1/7/06

I had surgery on Tuesday and it's Saturday today. I feel very good. A good sized chunk of my armpit is gone - nine nodes, but it's feeling less sore and numb and like a have a softball wedged under my pit. The incision from the lumpectomy is about 1.5 inches and the one under my arm is 4-5 inches.

Last Tuesday V. dropped me off at the Breast Center at 9:45 for the Sentinel node biopsy. I had to wait 1 1/2 hours for the nuclear medicine to be delivered so they could give me the injection that would eventually be read to show if any nodes had cancer. I finally got to pre-op 1/2 hour before the surgery and met up with V. and S. They were with me for about 15 minutes then I was whisked off to the OR.

The whole thing was very smooth and positive. I wasn't particularly scared, I just wanted to get it over with. "Thy will be done", is really how I was feeling. When I woke up I was sore, but not incredibly so and I was able to spend the night at the hospital which I was really glad to do. I enjoyed reading a magazine and being alone after everyone left. In the middle of the night I woke up so I read for about an hour until I got tired. I loved doing that. I felt like I was on vacation.

Now at home I'm still resting a lot, but doing more every day. V. is really great and taking care of both S. and me.

I got the pathology report - Stage II, Grade II.