Friday, February 9, the surgeon placed a magseed next to the largest tumor. It is helpful for tumors like mine, that you cannot feel when palpating the breast. It is 5mm (less than .2 inches) and made of surgical grade stainless steel. The doctor places it with a needle after he numbs the area where he will insert the needle. When it is time for the lumpectomy, the surgeon then uses a special probe that makes different sounds depending on how close the surgeon is to the magseed. He uses this together with a sonogram machine to make sure he can also see where the tumor is.
Wednesday, February 14, I was not allowed to eat any solid foods after 9:30pm as I was going to be completely under for this surgery. No liquids after 7:30am on Thursday. I had to be at the hospital two hours prior to the surgery. Sitting around doing nothing is not easy for me, but Craig was there to entertain me :)
The nurse was able to access my port so that I did not need a needle in my arm when they put in an IV. Thank you to Craig who reminded the nurse that I had the port!
Before I could go home the surgeon came and talked to Craig and me. I was unfortunately not lucid enough to understand, or afterwards remember, everything he said, so good thing Craig was there paying attention. He has been very helpful throughout this journey.
The surgery and recovery were not bad. The sites, one on the brass for the removal of the tumors, and one in the armpit to remove the sentinel lymph nodes, felt tender, but I was not in pain. I was given Norco (hydrocodone and acetaminophen) for the pain and took one the first night home to make sure I would be able to sleep just in case it became more painful. Because I needed to sleep sitting up, I did not want to take any chances. After that all I needed for a day or two was acetaminophen.
Sleeping seated is difficult for me, but I succeeded to get at least some rest. After three nights I gave up sleeping sitting up. I needed some rest. I am a side sleeper, so it was a little more difficult, but with the aid of a mastectomy pillow it was not too bad. The most difficult part was turning over.
I was fortunate to have Craig around to help as I was not supposed to pick up anything over ten pounds for two weeks. That is not a lot of weight, so between that and not being able to reach very high up with my right arm there was a lot I could not do. However, there was minimal pain, and I did feel good, so was grateful for that.
The morning of Monday, February 19, I had access to the pathology report. It looked good at first - the margins were clear, meaning the surgeon had been able to remove all the cancer, and there was no cancer present in the three lymph nodes he removed. That was terrific news - it meant the cancer had not spread from the tumors in the breast.
It also said that the chemo had shrunk the mass by 50%, and the size by 15%. That was concerning to me. It did not seem the chemotherapy had done a great job of shrinking the tumors.
I was bummed and needed time to process the news. But first I wanted to let myself be sad about this most likely bad news. I took a sad day and watched television, read, at chocolate, and sat around. By late afternoon I was tired of doing nothing, so started researching the side effects of Kadcyla, the drug I thought my oncologist would most likely suggest I get treated with.
It is Herceptin with a chemo drug, emtansine, “connected” to it. It is a targeted drug. The Herceptin brings the emtansine to the where the Her2 protein is present, and the chemo drug kills the cancer cells. Because of how it works, it tends to not affect the rest of your body like other chemotherapy.
The side effects are not different from the Taxotere, Carboplatin, and Herceptin that I was given before, but many women are able to handle the side effects better. This looked good to me. I could handle that. I felt at peace with what would most likely be my new treatment plan.
When my surgeon called the following day to discuss the pathology results, I could honestly tell him that I was okay with potentially more chemo. Now I needed to wait until I saw my oncologist to confirm that I would replace the Herceptin only infusions with Kadcyla.
Monday, March 4, I had a post-op appointment with my surgeon. Everything looked good, and I was feeling well. No pain, and the incisions were healing well. The surgery and recovery from it were easy, much easier than the chemotherapy.
Mastectomy pillow - your armpits fit in the cutaways,
then you snap it closed so it fits around your body.
The pillow works better than you think it will.
It takes pressure off the incision sites.
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