Going into the surgery, I was told that this tumor will very likely be invasive, even though all the multiple biopsies showed DCIS (non-invasive disease). So I was hoping for the best but expecting the worst. I felt like I had a very realistic outlook. I was just hoping and praying for my lymph nodes to be negative because my prognosis would be so much better that way.
On the day of surgery I was nervous but excited to get the tumor out of me, I was sad about losing my boobs for a split second, but I got over that quickly. My first stop was to radiology to get my left breast injected with dye so they know which lymph node to take out first which follows the flow of the lymphatic system. Then off to the OR, where they did a great job of making me feel comfortable. I thought that was funny because I knew as soon as they put me to sleep, they were gonna manhandle me and do what they had to do, but that extra time to get me a warm blanket, let me pick the music, and make me feel comfortable before they put me to sleep meant a great deal. It was also funny because the anesthesiologist asked me where I wanted to go on vacation and I answered as if it wasn't a rhetorical question and I started to answer " we are hoping to go to Hawaii"...then quickly realized he meant where did I want to go to lala land as I felt the medicine go into my IV and I was out!
I was in for about 6 hours and had 2 surgeons working on me at the same time, a breast surgeon that does the mastectomies and the plastic surgeon that does the reconstruction. My husband waited for me the entire time, my mom home with the baby, and it occurred to me that there would be no one waiting with my husband. This is the part that I found the most amazing...I actually had my friends and co-workers that didn't even know Matt with their own kids volunteer to keep him company and they did! I also called one of his own co-workers and asked her to see if any of them would be available to visit, expecting only 1 person to be able to make it and there were a stream of visitors that came. It might be funny that this is what I worried about going into surgery, but it was. I knew he was going to be there for me when I woke up, but who was going to be there for him! He has been so strong, I think we forget how much he was going through. A new baby, a post-partum wife with the baby blues, then breast cancer! He is and has been beyond amazing and I am the luckiest lady in the world!
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