Surgery: Quick Take

Linda finished her surgery today like the champion she is. However, it was a long day! We started at 6am, checked in, ran through some imaging tests to find the Sentinel Node and remaining breast tumor mass. After that, she had surgery where they checked the Sentinel Node (actually a few nodes showed as the possible Sentinel Node so they checked these) in surgery and one was still positive for cancer (as was the case before the chemo). Although we knew the statistics said this was the most likely scenario, we were hopeful after the great response to chemo that Linda had that the Sentinel Node would be negative. The upside is that Linda still had an excellent response from the chemo in how much it reduced the tumor and node sizes from the initial diagnosis. Had we had surgery at that time (at initial diagnosis), they would have taken the additional nodes anyway. The good response to chemo that Linda had is a very positive sign, even though the node status being negative would have been icing on the cake.

So, in addition to the lumpectomy and Sentinel Node removal/checks, the surgeon had to take a mass of tissue from Linda's armpit area with additional lymph nodes. They will check all these masses with more in-depth pathology over the next days to see how many additional nodes may be positive. The surgery thus took longer than initially hoped and the recovery will be tougher. Linda stayed the night in the hospital since her pain was high and she also got a bit sick from the anesthesia when she woke up. Ava, Brian, and I went back to visit her later after I came home and she was feeling much better at ~8pm than she was when I left at ~6pm. We were able to show off the baby to one of the nurses who transported Linda to Eugene the night she went there to deliver Ava!

Ava stayed the day with two of our wonderful NICU nurses, Beth and Sheila who are also both breast cancer survivors. They said Ava was great for them all day and they had fun seeing her again. It was so nice for me to be able to be there for the surgery while trusted souls (that could also manage any unique issues she might have) took care of Ava so a huge thanks to Beth and Sheila for driving from Eugene at a crazy morning hour and spending over 13 hours with Ava!!!

Linda should be home sometime tomorrow - recovery will take about 4-6 weeks they said. We're now hoping the pathology reports will come back with "clear margins" (no cancer in the outside edges of the breast tumor mass that was removed) and minimal involvement in the remaining lymph nodes that the surgeon removed.

Linda is happy to have the surgery behind her and is looking forward to healing over the coming weeks so she can lift Ava with her left arm again soon!

Rob.