The plan was for surgery to remove the tumour and cancerous lymph nodes to be done in Surrey. I had a connection with the surgeon there (who is the department lead and also did my mum’s surgery) and also with a reconstruction plastic surgeon. But the dates available were all at a surgical day care centre, and because of my low heart function it really needed to be done at an acute care hospital with an overnight stay.
Lucky, lucky me… the surgeon I was originally referred to in Victoria was able to find me a closer date. So on February 25th, 2025 I had my radical mastectomy and complete lymph node removal – without a general anaesthetic. Again, because of my low heart function, the safer option was to use sedation, local freezing and spinal nerve blocks instead. I would not voluntarily sign up for the nerve block needles again, but on the whole I had an excellent experience. No lingering grogginess or feeling ill, and the numbing pain control gave me about 12 hours of complete comfort! Plus, one of my Cardiologist friends told me I was a “badass”, which is a compliment that I will probably enjoy until the day I die.
I was discharged the next day with a fresh dose of happy juice (Dilaudid) on board. Home for a bowl of soup and an afternoon nap with Kenneth at the pussy cats. Heaven!
Of course nothing lasts forever, good or bad. One of my life mantras is, “this too shall pass”, no matter what we’re talking about. In this case, of course the next few days were a little uncomfortable until the surgical drain came out (I’m glad I didn’t realize how long it was until it came out…eep!).
Later, the pathology report showed good news and bad news. The great news was that the margins were “clean” and my surgeon got 17 lymph nodes of which only two were positive. But that meant two still had active cancer after the chemo. And the microscopic analysis showed this cancer to be Grade 3 (Grade 1 is the “least bad” and Grade 3 is the worst) with a Nottingham score of 8 (out of 9). It’s a score that shows this cancer is fast growing and aggressive. I guess I already knew that, but it’s still sobering to see it in black and white on the pathology report. That meant it was important to get on with the next stage of the treatment adventure… radiation.
