Anyone have axillary lymph node dissection AND radiation too?

You may want to look at the thread called Grey zone for radiation or something like that. A lot of us appear to be in this grey area.   I am currently going for my 2nd opinion on whether or not I will need rads. I am hoping not. Good luck with your decision. 

I had a uni MX and am getting rads, but had a larger tumor than you and like 5kidsMom, positive and palpaple node before sx (had neo adjuvant chemo).  With only a micromet in a node (unless you had neoadjuvant chemo as well), I would think you wouldn't need radiation with a MX.  Talk to your RO and see what he says and get a second opinion if you aren't comfortable.  I do think there are some docs that overtreat, but I certainly wouldn't just dismiss the idea of rads without hearing the reasoning.  Are you young?  Perhaps that is the reason.  Wishing you the best.

I also had a mast & rads, which I talked to several rad oncs about and tried very hard to avoid.  But the bottom line was, there were individual characteristics about my dx that made rads prudent, even with a mast.  In my case, those were extracapsular extension in my only positive node, which basically means the bc was already trying to grow out of the node, and who knows if some cells did; and an unspecfied margin on a piece of trimmed tissue that no one, including my BS (which is why it wasn't inked), knew contained a 1mm bit of bc.  Those 2 factors made every rad onc I talked to say that RT would be a wise choice for me.  

Hopefully, you won't need RT, but if it's recommended for you, there are probably specific reasons that can be explained to you, to help you decide the risk/benefit.  My experience doing RT was a piece of cake, and nothing to fear, although I would have preferred not to expose my body to radiation, if I'd felt comfortable skipping it.   Deanna 

My situation was very similar to yours... 1 out of 2 sentinel nodes had a micromet, went for further AND and all came back clear. I ended up having radiation recommended to me anyway, because my tumor margins, although clear, weren't as large as the RO wanted them to be. I don't remember the exact margins, but my surgeon told me she felt it was more than sufficient, but RO wasn't comfortable.

I opted for radiation, for peace of mind down the road, although I am fully aware of the potential damage from radiation. As for the actual radiation treatments, they were a breeze for me as well.

Best wishes in deciding what will work for you:)

I had a left mx and I, too, was devastated to learn that I had to have rads because I really thought I wouldn't need it.  I had 4 nodes positive so the rad onc said that I could have up to a 50% chance of reoccurence if I didn't have it.  Even though I have no breast tissue left, he said it could come back on the chest wall.  So I did it and it wasn't bad.  Good feeling to know that you got every cancer cell lingering in the area.

Am curious as to what you decided as I too am facing a similar situation. I suggest you read a Clinical Investigation called " Prognostic Index Score and Clinical Prediction Model of Local Regional Recurrence After Mastectomy in Breast Cancer" . I have had a double mastectomy, and have to have radiation on the left side due to possible mamory node invation, but choose not to have radiation on the right side.