We visited with Dr. Lovett (my surgeon) today. After a brief exam he declared I was darned lucky to have found the lump because he wouldn't have said there was anything there.
My only real option is to have a bilateral mastectomy. The surgery is scheduled for October 13. I'll be having the sentinel node biopsy (basically they put in a tracer to find the first lymph node from the tumor site, take it out and see if there is a spread of cancer there). I was in the trial for this 11 years ago which means they not only found the sentinel node but they also removed 14 lymph nodes to determine any spreading. This time they will only need to remove the one.
Possible follow up treatment may be chemo and as long as there is no spreading noted radiation will not be needed. I can't have it on the right side anyway. But that all is a long way off....the surgery is first.
So now I wait! My first surgery was September 24, 1998. Guess if I keep it all within the same time frame it doesn't mess up every part of the year! :o)
