Surgery

I had surgery on January 27, 2022. It was out-patient surgery. Prior to surgery the radiologist had to insert a wire into the tumor as well as inject the breast (at the areola -yikes!) with blue dye to help determine which nodes could be affected. After the wire is inserted they do a mammogram to confirm the placement and then another image is taken to show where the dye travels to. After that, the actual surgery takes place. The Tumor was removed and 2 sentinel nodes. (When nodes are removed it causes blood to get into the lymphatic system. This causes pain and “cording”. Lymphedema Therapy can help with this and I was able to start therapy a few weeks after surgery. The therapist has been very helpful in helping to resolve the pain.) The surgery was a success. The mass had clear margins and the nodes were “Clear”. Recovery was pretty quick. I had nerve pain under my arm along with the cording and 5 weeks later it is still numb in one area. They said you could return to normal activity in a few days but it took about 2 weeks before I had my energy back and the pain was reduced. I was working during the recovery and was planning a big event for work so most of my physical and mental energy was focused on that. It seemed like having something else to focus on was a good idea but I was just delaying dealing with my diagnosis and treatments. This caught up with me on the day we visited the oncologist.