Scheduled

On Friday, January 12 I will be having a bilateral mastectomy. At least one lymph node will be removed. When I get to St Joe's, they'll do an ultrasound and insert a wire marker into the affected lymph node. Then I'll get "a very painful shot of radioactive fluid just outside my right areola" that will travel to the lymphatic system. During surgery Dr Kommareddi will use a Geiger counter to see where the fluid traveled. If the known affected lymph node is first in the chain it may be the only one removed, but if there are other lymph nodes between that one at the breast they may be removed as well. After Dr Kommareddi has completed the mastectomy (1.5 hrs), Dr Rao will step in to begin the reconstruction process (4.5 hrs). He will put spacers beneath the pectoralis muscle on each side to begin the skin stretching process. He'll work on stretching the right side as much as he can before radiation. Radiation thickens the skin and causes scar tissue to build up in that area. Post radiation stretching may be exactly the same, it may not stretch at all, or do something in between. There's no way to tell until it's time. So I'll go in twice a week to have fluid added to the spacer until radiation starts. If I remember correctly, Dr Rao said he'll only be adding fluid to the right side at first, keeping the left side flat so it's not in the way during radiation (the beam comes in at an angle to the center of my chest so as to avoid internal organs). So my sexiness factor will be off the charts! Radiation will start about a month after the mastectomy and will be every day for 6 weeks. There will be a "grace period" of about a month after radiation before the reconstruction process will resume. I'm waiting to hear back from the doctor about whether or not the hysterectomy can be scheduled during that Grace period. If not, I'll get another Zoladex shot to keep my ovaries hibernating. Estrogen is feeding the cancer, so we want to keep those bad boys turned off. I think that's all for now - I'm so so so very grateful to have Christmas back! Ho Ho Ho! Oh yeah - many people ask about Todd and how he's handling this. He's fine as long as you don't discuss details of any of the surgeries. After hearing the doctor describe some different reconstruction options he told me that he doesn't understand why I even want to do that, that a flat chest wall is fine with him! The kids are fine. I worry that I'm giving them the wrong understanding of cancer. They talk about it casually and it freaks out adults. They don't know the weight that the word Cancer holds to most people. I am also grateful that they don't need to learn just how serious it really can be. Not yet.