Lymph node dissection

jonella

Hi there,

I had a BMX with immediate reconstruction on May 17, 2016. We have what is believed to be hereditary cancer in our family but no known mutation has been found. Now that my brain is clearing a bit,, I am wondering about a few things. I had a very small microinvasive ductal carcinoma in my right breast.

Five days after the surgery, I met with my surgeon. He did not have the pathology results at that time. He said everything went as expected. Originally, both he and the PS said the tumor and one or two sentinal nodes would be dissected on the right side. When the path report came back, the surgeon called to tell me that I had clean margins and 7 clean nodes, both on the right and left side. I was relieved the margins and nodes were clean, also still drugged and tired 10 days after surgery. I did not ask questions. He did say he had been worried because it was delayed because it had been flagged as a difficult read.

Of course, that is your one and only visit with the surgeon. You are then passed on to the PS for the remainder of your reconstruction. I did ask the PS about why both sides had lymph nodes removed and he said that was the surgeon's call. Has anyone else had this experience and if so, why would they remove 7 nodes instead of 1 or 2 and why on the opposite side of the breast cancer. My oncologist gave me the same answer as the PS, that it was the surgeon's call. She did say the amount of tumor they removed at surgery was microscopic.

I am just curious if anyone has had this experience.