What a Day

 

There has been a lot of stuff happening this week. First of all, the tumor board met and felt that there was no need for me to have additional lymph nodes removed. There were 6 taken on the right side at the time of my mastectomy, and while we knew one was positive, the amount of cancer in the second one was extremely small. They all agreed that 6 was enough since I will be following up with radiation therapy. This is good news, as a full lymph node dissection means not only more surgery, but also the risk of lymphedema.

I was supposed to have port placement surgery today, but that ended up being canceled. The tumor board was also not certain that I really need chemo (!!), so Dr. Liu wants to wait until after I’ve met with my oncologist next week to see if I’m going to even need the port(!!!).  I’ve also scheduled a second opinion with another oncologist in Greenwood. I haven’t even spoken to mine yet, so it’s not because I don’t value her opinion, it’s just that I feel like I want multiple opinions on something as important as chemo. I see Dr. Joyce 11/18, and the other doctor 11/22.

I was able to get my last 2 drains out today. I’m wearing my own shirt and jacket (see featured pic at the top of this post) for the first time in over 2 weeks! I had to have special pockets to hold the drain bulbs and tubing, so I had special tops to wear (but I hated them). I am not sad to see them go..

^^Drain bulbs and tubes.

I learned today that the rolled up skin on the sides of my tissue expanders will just… stay there! I thought they would be “unrolled” as the expanders are filled, but that’s not the case. They are currently stitched and glued, but eventually they will scar into place. This is done to keep the tissue expanders from sliding into my armpits 😬.

*I’m going to share a close up pic of that now, so stop scrolling if you’re squeamish about that sort of thing.*

^^This was taken right before my drains came out, so that’s the tubing you see on the left. The small, red scar above it is from the drain that was removed last week. There is still a lot of bruising and swelling, overall, but it’s all healing well. The top incision is from the lymph node removal. The curved incision area by my fingers is the rolled up skin that will make the “expander holding” scar. When it’s time to swap out for implants, he can also do some work to improve the appearance of the scarring, if necessary.