So praise God, I have been in an excellent frame of mind all day. I feel like myself and not teary or sad despite the news of a positive lymph diagnosis yesterday. Dr. Palmer eventually got a hold of me and explained her plan in a one hour phone conversation.
Basically, she ordered genetic testing which I'm having at done at Children's Hospital on Friday, May 20th. The results may take 2-6 weeks to get in depending on what genetic tests are done. If they are negative, we proceed with lumpectomy. If they are positive, it is best to do a double mastectomy. She prefer we wait to schedule my surgery until after those tests are in, so the June 1 surgery is cancelled.
Next she says we will press on with the lumpectomy if genetic is negative, but the sentinel lymph node test is no longer how she wants to manage the axillary area. She now believes it's best to just go ahead with a complete lymph node dissection of all my lymph nodes on the left side under my arm. The pathology results of each node (there can be up to 25), will determine if I need chemotherapy, followed by radiation. If I don't need chemo, then just surgery and radiation.
She answered my question of how many complete lymph node dissections she has done and she said that this year she has done 4-5! That's it!! AND, she has only worked on her own, post fellowship, for 6 months, so at most, she has only done 5-6 on her own. If I ever thought for a minute I'd let her do my surgery, that changed the second she told me that.
My sister, Karen, believes we need to really ask the other breast surgeons their idea on this because just removing all the lymph nodes, puts me at much greater risk of lympedema, and potentially not being able to work as a hygienist or do many activities I love, like kayak, soak in a hot tub, take really hot showers and carry our camping gear backpacks! She thinks there is still a chance I could have them do a sentinel node biopsy and see what shows up positive, then just remove those and radiate the tissue to get any microscopic cells not detected with MRI or sentinel node biopsies. There is still hope that all the tests were false positive and once they get in and remove the tumor in my breast and the sentinel nodes, THEN and only then will they truly know it's pathology and what to do next.
The best part of my talk with Dr. Palmer was knowing that there is still hope that I can schedule my surgery at the end of June, heal from it, and still go on vacation in the end of July. There is still hope that if I don't need chemo, but just radiation, that I can possibly still go on our annual wilderness camping trip to Quetico because I can complete radiation in August.
Friday I will meet the first of two breast surgeons, so I'm hoping and praying for a promising treatment plan from her, Dr. Jamie Lewis.
Now heading to bed since I've been up since 2 a.m. Some sweet friend reminded me of how the Lord grants sleep to those whom He loves.
Good night and keep praying for no chemo, and a miracle healing, and John's health with the stress of it all, and my wisdom in choosing my doctors.
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