23 September 2011

One week out

I saw both of my surgeons on Thursday.  Dr. Boob took a quick look and then went over in detail what the path report said.

The report was better news than we had anticipated given the brief phone call on Tuesday.  Yes the tumors were larger than we'd hoped, but they weren't 'ugly'.  The grade of the tumor measures how funky the tumor cells are.  The wackier the cells, the worse the cancer.  (Presumably cells that still look like they are supposed to also act kind of like they are supposed to.)  My tumors were grade 1, which means they still kinda looked like what they were supposed to.

Secondly, while there were isolated cancer cells in one of the sentinel lymph nodes, they can't be sure they got there themselves, as they were isolated.  They could have been forced through when the dye was inserted, when I had the original biopsy done or during surgery.  Or they could have broken off by themselves.  In any event, the lymph nodes were working properly.  I will not have radiation.  I will have an oncologyDX (more pathology on the tumor removed) done in order to assess what my chances of recurrence are so we can properly calculate how much (if any) chemotherapy will lessen my chance of recurrence.

Dr. Boob released me to the oncologist.  I should get a call from that office within a week.

Two-Drain's scrub nurse took out my stitches and that would have been a much more pleasant experience if his office had a foot masseuse. The worst part was removing the surgical tape.  There was very little pain, but a hyper-awareness of what was going on even 'though I averted my eyes.  Dan held my hand and he and Two-Drain talked about Legacy of Healing. Against all odds, and my initial judgement, evidently, Two-Drain is a mensch.  I stand corrected.  And I had to admit I was wrong about five times to Dan, who is still smug about it and rubbing it in.  And making me tell everybody we come across in real life.

Two-Drain also removed... two drains, leaving me with... two drains.  I'll see his partner next week to see if the other drains can be removed.  I now have little strips of surgical tape across the incisions, instead of one long strip over the length of it.  And I can do my little exercises but he said to take it easy.  It won't pull out stitches or anything, it'll just make fluid build up and the more fluid, the longer I have to keep the drains.  I hate sleeping on my back so I'll be gently stretching and walking like a mad woman for the next week.   It's really yucky weather today and I'm not sure if I want to get all wet.  I may do a little mall walking today - me and the senior citizens at Town & Country.