Went in for blood work, go over MRI and schedule Surgery

Blood work is all good…MRI: Tumor and mass shrunk as well as the nodes. So Surgery is scheduled for June 29th.  I’m having a Bilateral Mastectomy with left Axillary Lymph Node Dissection. Which means they are removing both breasts and the lymph nodes from under my left arm.

I’ll be down for a few weeks.  After the drain tubes come out after a week or two I’ll start physical therapy.  Then radiation. The length of radiation will be determined by what is left over after surgery.  But radiation is typically every day for 5 weeks.  Then we do immunotherapy and up my anti-hormone therapy.  THEN hopefully my margins will be clear.

I was not a candidate for a lumpectomy due to the size of the tumor and the late stage cancer diagnosis. So mastectomy it is.  I’m doing both because although “you aren’t at risk for breast cancer” I don’t want to take my chances with the right side.  And I’m all about symmetry. You hear a lot of people who have reconstruction at the time of the mastectomy but I’m not a candidate for that because I’m having radiation afterwards.  I can have reconstruction at a later date if I choose.  But I’m going to go with the French Waif Model look for a bit.

So another step closer to getting rid of this stupid cancer thing.  It’s a long road….but at least I’ll be alive!