Stage Less than 4 Woman...Here's YOUR place..

Hi Anne,

Yes, I am married (for the second time) and my husband is wonderful.  We've been married for 13 years now and he treats my 3 kids like his own and I treat his daughter like mine as well....all together we have 4 kids...and 6 grandchildren...between the ages of 2 years and 15 years.  Our kids are between the ages of 33 and 38.  (we started young...LOL).  I'm doubly blessed as my ex-husband (and Rod's ex partner) all get along and help each other with the kids and grand children etc.  Rod has become my soul mate for sure.   Is BSGI like the MRI I had done the other day?  Or an ultra sound?  I'm learning so many new terms...I feel like I'm some sort of medical practioner all of a sudden.  LOL.

Hi Anne,

The surgery is over and yahoo...no drains.  I will get the full report on January 18th.  Hopefully it will be good news...if cancer can ever be "good news"...LOL.

I am feeling EXCELLENT and haven't had this much energy in years.  I think the cancer simply didn't agree with my body and my body was trying to tell me in oh so many ways to 'get rid of it'...but I wasn't listening that closely. It took the cab ride to a wrong place to wake me up....wow.  I should tell you one other thing...on the morning of the surgery....very early...as we were driving into the hospital parking lot...I was praying to the Lord and was quite afraid.  I looked up and saw right beside us a little yellow cab...simply parked on the side...nobody in it...just a simple little car to tell me everything was going to be alright.  Cool hey?  Another amazing thing happened with the time...9:11.  For almost a year my daughter and then it started to happen to me...would look up at the clock always when it said 9:11.  The night before my surgery I looked at the clock and it said 7:11 and I thought to myself...that's funny it doesn't say 9:11.  At that moment I knew that the surgery would end at 9:11 tomorrow and that it would be "over".  Later the next day when I was talking to my daughter she told me that she too knew that she would not be noticing the time at 9;11 anymore and that it was 'over'.  and yes, the surgery did end at 9:11.  Amazing...truly.  Praise God!!

Anne1962- Thank You for your kind reply. I am currently recovering from bilateral sentinel node biopsy done on January 15th. 

All I can say is "It kicked my butt!!" I will probably post more about this on the Surgery- Before, During and After Forum. It is time for a percocet.I am starting to feel tugging inside of my armpits. Maybe because of using my keyboard for the first time since the surgery, you think? 

I just thought of a name for the topic. Talk to you again. 

Pudding 

Hi Anne....the gamma probe (that's what they call the needle thing to prepare your breast for the surgery if they are going to use the blue dye to identify your "hot" sentinal nodes) is really quite easy.  Here is what they did:  I took off everything above my pants (and yes, my husband could have come in with me if I wanted but he was talking to my sister so I didn't want to interrupt them and act like a big baby but when I was in the room I was mad at myself for not asking him to come in) and put on a little paper gown that opened in the front.  The Dr. came in and said he was going to freeze my breast and inject a little dye that would prepare things for surgery.  I said, "is it going to hurt" and he said "not much at all"...and he was right!  I guess because the freezing went in at the same time.  He put the needle point on a bit of a slant and didn't go exactly on top of the tumor (mine is/was at 12:00) but sort of beside it.  I did not feel any of the dye (or whatever he gave me) go into my breast.  Right after he finished (it took about 8 seconds) the nurse asked me to gently massage the area to ensure the dye got going into the veins all around the area in question.  I did this for a few minutes and she said that was fine and away I went.  They gave me a piece of paper that was quite important.  It was a document that said exactly how mucho f the dye they injected into me.  I had to give that to the admitting department the next morning and she put it on my chart, in preparation for the surgery.  The surgery was the next morning. While I was asleep, the surgeon injected a blue dye that went directly to the "hot" nodes.  They knew exactly where they were because the gamma probe I had the day before is sort of like radio active material or something and it causes the blue dye to actually "light up" the path and the nodes that are linked to the tumor.  The surgeon can quickly identify which nodes need to be removed.  The pathologist guy is also in the room and quickly has a review of the nodes.  If it looks like there is no cancer...they close you up and then go in for the tumor or breast if you are going to have a MX.  If it looks like cancer is evident...they take out a bunch more nodes and then remove the breast/tumor.   About 10 days after your surgery your pathology report will come back and this will tell you the details of your story...

I am not that great at explaining things so if anyone else out there can give a better description ... please do!  Thanks everyone...