Surgery Date
Summary: I am having surgery next Monday 16 December at Calvary Private and will only, hopefully, be in overnight.
More Details : The surgeon who Wendy and I met yesterday was very personable and very generous with his time. He explained lots of things, including how the cancerous cells of ductal cancer behave differently to the cancerous cells of lobular cancer ( the one I have) and hence why the post-op treatment is often different. Apparently lobular carcinomas can sometimes present as 'spots' elsewhere in either breast - not necessarily surgically significant but possibly relevant to post-op treatment decisions. So I will be having an MRI on Friday. Apparently, as of November, Medicare will cover all the costs if the surgeon words the request carefully. This he did. He had a space in his last operating list for the year next Monday. Yeah.
On Monday morning I will have a sentinel node biopsy . A low dose of radioactive dye is injected which helps to determine how many lymph glands are affected. There is a possibility that none are. No-one who has pushed and prodded can feel any and they usually can. Then mastectomy, which I have chosen. If I have a lumpectomy ( or as it is often known in the literature ' breast conservation' ) I will definitely have to have radiation. There is a good chance that I will not have to if I have a mastectomy. Also, I feel that if I have a lumpectomy and I have another 'temporary nuisance' event, I will always be annoyed at myself for not having had a mastectomy in the first place. Another factor is that breast conservation surgery is usually , cosmetically, more effective for larger breasted women than me. Think percentage of tissue removed!
Hopefully I will only be in hospital overnight. If I do have some lymph glands removed I will be sent home with a drainage bag. All this was explained to me and Wendy (not the bit about the percentage of tissue - I read that in a book) . Wendy had to leave before the end to collect kids from school - we had not anticipated that the surgeon would spend what turned out to be 1 1/2 hours .
Things I learned after the consultation : the surgeon will be bumping someone off the list to fit me in; filling out numerous dates on numerous pages of a hospital admission form when I was almost brain dead was difficult (my birth date, the day's date and admission date all got a bit muddled); the office manager can act like a dragon ( not to me - someone else) , but was very caring and gentle with me.
When I was finished Wendy came and collected me . She lives 5 minutes drive away from the hospital - how fortunate is that, he could have been a surgeon on the other side of town. I stayed for dinner with her lovely family - see photo below, all in various stages of eating - and then drove safely home.
One of the things we were given at Breastscreen ACT was a booklet about talking to children about cancer and a comic book ( one of a series) for children about breast cancer. The book talked about lobules, ducts, lymph glands , feelings, etc. The kids had all read it and were interested in what I was going to do. One asked "Are you having it cut out or it all chopped off". There were many questions " what are you going to do about..." Usually my response was " I haven't worked it out yet, I will work it out or ask one of my friends".
Today I am going to a drop-in clinic that the breast-care nurses run.
More Details : The surgeon who Wendy and I met yesterday was very personable and very generous with his time. He explained lots of things, including how the cancerous cells of ductal cancer behave differently to the cancerous cells of lobular cancer ( the one I have) and hence why the post-op treatment is often different. Apparently lobular carcinomas can sometimes present as 'spots' elsewhere in either breast - not necessarily surgically significant but possibly relevant to post-op treatment decisions. So I will be having an MRI on Friday. Apparently, as of November, Medicare will cover all the costs if the surgeon words the request carefully. This he did. He had a space in his last operating list for the year next Monday. Yeah.
On Monday morning I will have a sentinel node biopsy . A low dose of radioactive dye is injected which helps to determine how many lymph glands are affected. There is a possibility that none are. No-one who has pushed and prodded can feel any and they usually can. Then mastectomy, which I have chosen. If I have a lumpectomy ( or as it is often known in the literature ' breast conservation' ) I will definitely have to have radiation. There is a good chance that I will not have to if I have a mastectomy. Also, I feel that if I have a lumpectomy and I have another 'temporary nuisance' event, I will always be annoyed at myself for not having had a mastectomy in the first place. Another factor is that breast conservation surgery is usually , cosmetically, more effective for larger breasted women than me. Think percentage of tissue removed!
Hopefully I will only be in hospital overnight. If I do have some lymph glands removed I will be sent home with a drainage bag. All this was explained to me and Wendy (not the bit about the percentage of tissue - I read that in a book) . Wendy had to leave before the end to collect kids from school - we had not anticipated that the surgeon would spend what turned out to be 1 1/2 hours .
Things I learned after the consultation : the surgeon will be bumping someone off the list to fit me in; filling out numerous dates on numerous pages of a hospital admission form when I was almost brain dead was difficult (my birth date, the day's date and admission date all got a bit muddled); the office manager can act like a dragon ( not to me - someone else) , but was very caring and gentle with me.
When I was finished Wendy came and collected me . She lives 5 minutes drive away from the hospital - how fortunate is that, he could have been a surgeon on the other side of town. I stayed for dinner with her lovely family - see photo below, all in various stages of eating - and then drove safely home.
One of the things we were given at Breastscreen ACT was a booklet about talking to children about cancer and a comic book ( one of a series) for children about breast cancer. The book talked about lobules, ducts, lymph glands , feelings, etc. The kids had all read it and were interested in what I was going to do. One asked "Are you having it cut out or it all chopped off". There were many questions " what are you going to do about..." Usually my response was " I haven't worked it out yet, I will work it out or ask one of my friends".
Today I am going to a drop-in clinic that the breast-care nurses run.
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