I was diagnosed with breast cancer at age 40: Part 2

 Make sure to read yesterday's post to read about my diagnosis. 

So my husband and I went to the breast surgeon ( maybe she does other kinds of cancer surgeries too?, I'm not sure). 

She also was very kind and encouraging. 

We did a lumpectomy in early October and they removed some lymph nodes as well to make sure the cancer hadn't spread. The good news is that it hadn't. But when the surgeon called back with the pathology a few days later, they hadn't gotten all the cancer. 

I had my second lumpectomy in early November. 

They couldn't get all the cancer that time either. 

So I opted to do a mastectomy on just the right breast. There were some extenuating circumstances that didn't allow me to have them both removed at the same time. Basically a bunch of medical terms and definitions should go here, but they didn't feel comfortable doing them both at the same time. 

I wasn't going lie. I was mad at my breasts and wanted them off. Immediately. 

So I had a right mastectomy on December 15th, 2023. 

That time pathology showed all margins were clear and the cancer was gone!

I did have some trouble with it healing and retaining fluid. I had to have it drained twice which was not fun.....

I also couldn't move my right arm much farther than about my nose. So I did 6 weeks of occupational therapy- and my therapist was one of my former students! She was very professional and knowledgeable and helped me regain my range of motion in my right arm/shoulder. 

After that was all healed up I went back to get my left breast removed and to have tissue expanders placed in both breasts. This allows for my breasts to stretch so that I can get implants eventually. That happened on  August 28, 2023. 

So I'm kind of in the middle of that right now. Having my breasts heal and my tissue expanders expanding tissue. 

I will go the my plastic surgeon over the next several months to get my tissue expanders expanded and then have my implants put in.