Surgery

My surgery is scheduled for the 30th of this month with my pre-op on the 27th. That surgeon is sooooo nice. He said the pain in my breast will be gone and he will wean me off my heavy opioid painkillers. I will still have the neuralgia under the arm but there are better things that treat that sort of chronic pain. I asked about removing my other breast as well and he said if I wish to get that done in a few months, he had no problem with that. He asked again about reconstruction but I just feel that I have been through enough pain and suffering already to risk the complications of tissue expanders and the whole lot. Twenty years ago, it would have been different, but not at 61 years old. I just anticipate getting it over and done with. I don't know what they will find out from the breast tissue, hopefully it will all be okay. He does not feel that I will need any chemo and that is very good news.

New Surgeon

I met my new surgeon. He is quite young and really kind with a good sense of humour.He doubts very much that there is any recurrence of the cancer, as the margins were clear and so were the lymph nodes. The mammogram showed nothing abnormal but something did show up on the ultrasound. He said there is a very remote possibility of an entirely different tumour. He wants to do the mastectomy as soon as possible, hopefully before the end of the month. He wants it tested and examined very carefully. He also believes that it will resolve most of the pain issues. He wants to eventually get me off those heavy painkillers as they can be harmful to the body as well as addictive. He mentioned something about having to wait a bit for a breast reconstruction, but I said, "What?? At my age?? Who on earth is going to look at them anyways??" He lauged and said you never know. He figures the risks of complications and infections would be very high with reconstruction. I said I am comfortable with losing my breast. I accept it as inevitable and unavoidable. I feel much better now. I feel more reassured and confident that everything will work out okay.