Surgery!

TLDR; probably January 28th.

Woke up at 7 am and figured I might as well get ready for the 9:30 appointment, which was a really good idea considering I got lost somehow and made it right at 9:30 to the check-in desk. And then there’s waiting. Because this is a study, a nurse coordinator picks you up and ushers you into a room with four different ultrasound machines. It took them a bit to find whatever they were looking for – I know they were looking at the clip placed during the breast biopsy because you could see it on screen. Compared to the last time they did this (pre-treatment), there were very few areas that lit up.

Once that was done, I had to walk to the next building up to the surgery part of Mayo (it’s like an airport in there). I had to wait a while to meet with the surgical nurse. At least, I think she was a nurse. There were actually two – there’s always a resident or someone in training. The plan is a total mastectomy on both sides with the right one losing the nipple and some surrounding skin. I’ll be down the night before so I can get a negative COVID test (**fingers crossed**) and have radioactive trackers shot into my breasts. This apparently will make any cancerous tissue be seen so they can get all of it while they’re in surgery.

She talked a lot about the lymph nodes. I discovered my cancer is at a “level 1” in the lymph nodes, which is the best, she told me. They have to make a decision while in surgery which, if any, nodes need to come out. This is the best part about having surgery at Mayo is that there’s someone on hand to test the tissue while I’m under. The more lymph nodes that are surgically removed, the higher likelihood I’ll get lymphedema, which is swelling. This would not be great considering I love to write and am right-handed, but I don’t have much control over it. Now, if I have a complete response to the chemo, then I’m pretty golden.

Four to six weeks after surgery will be radiation then. They’ll set a tentative schedule for that while I’m in for pre-op stuff – I’ll need to meet with everyone again for a plan.

It was a long day but a good one! I’m happy to have an idea of when everything will happen. Time for more planning. 😉