Surgery tomorrow
To all the lovely Perth Pinkies out there,
Well, this evening I am in my hospital bed ready for surgery at 7:30 am in the morning.
After seeing 4 breast surgeons and 5 plastic surgeons and doing lots of research, here I finally am awaiting the knife as it were. Tomorrow morning I will be having bilateral mastectomies and a level 2 axillary lymph node clearance along with expander reconstruction with no muscle flaps....as yet!
My story so far has been as follows: Diagnosed in June 2013, had lumpectomy and sentinal node biopsy, initially my nodes were clear but after full pathology a micrometasis was found in one on the nodes. My tumour ended up being 35mm, grade 3, HER2 neg, oestrogen+ Progesterone positive with extensive lymphovascular invasion. As advised, I did not return for further lymphnode removal immediately after this initial surgery as I the plan was to proceed with preventative mastectomies and have further lymph nodes removed at the same time as mastectomies, but all after chemo. Having mastectomies means I should avoid having radiotherapy (assuming no more cancer is found that is). I chose to have the strongest of the recommended chemo treatments TAC, so fingers crossed that no more cancer is found when I have the mastectomies and 2/3rds of my axilla nodes removed. Hopefully, TAC got any hiddden cancer in my nodes and breasts. If I do need radiotherapy though I can revisit the possibility of a lat dorsi flap done via widened mastectomy wounds when my expanders are exchanged for implants. This way there is no chance radiotherapy could damage a lat dorsi recon. as I would only have radiotherapy with the expanders in and no flaps.
I feel at peace with my decisions now thanks to my research and I totally recommend seeing at least three plastic surgeons and two breast surgeons before making a decision about reconstruction. Anyway, one more sleep and under I go!! I will post all my pre and post-op photos when I return home. I am also donating my photos to the Breast Surgery Gallery at RPH, as I found that such a helpful service. Wish me luck!!
Lara
