Home from hospital

I want to thank everyone so much for their responses.  I now understand what you mean about the importance of rest.  I was home maybe an hour and a half before I needed to sleep for another 3!  It has been a whirlwind but I am pleased to have the surgery done. 

 

I have had some good news with my pathology - of the 19 lymph nodes taken only 2 are positive.  My surgeon said he did expect it may have been worse than that and he was also able to preserve some of the nerves in my armpit.  My pathology has come back confirming the biopsies.  I had 2 tumours - one invasive at 2.2 cm the other was smaller even though it apparently felt bigger being removed.  My breast had a wide area of precancerous change but no smaller spots were found.  The cancer is HER2 +ve and grade 3. The margins were clear.

I have had skin sparing surgery and insertion of a tissue expander - it is quite painful at the moment - a weird stretching sensation and quite uncomfortable when I am upright.  I have a dressing where my nipple used to be and another  under my arm - I also still have one drain in.  The tissue expander is obviously not fully expanded - this will occur as I heal and feel more comfortable.  At the moment I can't imagine the thought of him inserting more fluid in there to stretch it to match the other side!.

We have not discussed my followup treatment in detail yet - he has talked about chemotherapy with TCH - I have a followup appointment on Tuesday. He did say there would be no need for radiation treatment. 

I am going to take the advice of you all and rest and importantly not worry about the what ifs of recurrence.  I am so heartened by the lymph node results and now just even more grateful that my GP noticed the lump on a routine breast exam.  I can't help feeling that we have caught this little beast just as it was about to run rampage. 

My husband has been wonderful.  My kids are understandably all a bit "funny" about it.  One in particular (my 6 year old daughter) is avoiding me a little - she is scared I think, that if she touches me she'll hurt me.  My 4 year old son was using his magic wand to make me better this morning and my 9 year old daughter is busy becoming a breast cancer activist and fund raiser.  

Once again thank you so much for your supportive comments.  I am meeting some wonderful women who have been "there" already and are so willing with their time and support to someone they barely know - thank you.