Surgery

There will likely be more details later, but here are the high points of the mastectomy:

1. I no longer have a right breast. Yay! The surgeon didn't mess up and take the wrong one! I've been thinking about that scripture "a hair on your head shall not be lost." I know it sounds like I'm trying to be cute here (maybe just a little, but only a little) but I'm changing it to more current relevance. Of course, after a couple of rounds of chemo, the "hair on the head" maybe will sound more relevant too.

2. Margins are clear. I can't tell you how marvelous this is. If the margins were NOT clear, that would mean the surgeon didn't get all of it and would have to do more surgery. Awful.

3. The mass he removed was big (9 cm) but most of it was NOT invasive cancer, which is what they worry about most. Not that there wasn't cancer, but the cancer masses were all small. The biggest was only about 2 cm. WAY better news than we thought.

4. There were lymph nodes involved. This is the bad news. The four "sentinel" lymph nodes, the first four that drain(ed) the breast, were all "involved." They did another 13 lymph nodes, and three had microscopic cancer in them. On one hand, it is bad that there is cancer there. On the other hand, there is not a lot, and most of the lymph nodes were NOT involved. That is to say, chemo and radiation should get the little buggers. Hooray for chemo and radiation!

Thank you all so much for your prayers, good thoughts, love, lighting candles, fasts, and putting me on the prayer roll at the temple, depending on religious preference! I have been so grateful for all of you. Please don't stop! I feel the first big step has been taken, but I still have a long road of...unpleasantness to deal with. I can't express how much you have strengthened me. I feel so lucky for the support I have in this crappy situation.