night before surgery update

 

Thought I would give a  night before surgery update.   I’m still feeling good, just nervous for surgery. This is the first time I will be away from Ava and it will be for almost 2 days, she is sick (sinus infection on antibiotics) and not feeling well at all which makes it that much harder to leave her. Tyson seemed to take the news ok but I’m not sure how well he understands, I didn’t want to go into too much detail with him. So we shall see how he handles it when I get home Saturday.

            Today I received the results from my genetic testing…I was negative for the big main genes we were looking for like BRAC1/BRAC2 and all of the other big ones. I was positive for CHEK2 (checkpoint kinase 2), I was assured not to worry and that it does not change my course of treatment. This gene does give you an increased for breast cancer (around 20%) though, so that is interesting.

I also received 4 not so fun injections today at Moffit “LYMPHATIC MAPPING INJECTION” directly into my right breast (it was quick so I can’t complain too much about it).  If you want to know more about this fun injection here is the info Moffit supplied to me:

WHAT IS A LYMPHATIC MAPPING INJECTION?
This is a test done in the Nuclear Medicine department at Moffitt. It is scheduled just prior to a surgery appointment or the afternoon prior to a surgery appointment. Like other exams in Nuclear Medicine, we use a small amount of a radioactive material or substance called a "tracer" that allows us to see how the lymphatic system is draining within a specific area of your body.

HOW DOES IT WORK?
This test is used primarily for patients diagnosed with Breast cancer. Your physician is trying to determine if there is any progression or development of the cancer into the lymphatic system. We assist the surgeon by injecting a small amount of a radioactive tracer around the area of tumor. The tracer will drain through the lymphatic system and migrate into the lymph node basin nearest the tumor site. This will allow the surgeon to locate, in surgery, the exact lymph node(s) that the tumor may have drained to. The surgeon will remove only those lymph nodes containing the radioactive tracer and leave all the others. These nodes will then be sent to pathology to determine if any disease has traveled through the lymphatic system to these node(s). The tracer used in this procedure does not in any way determine if the tumor has entered into the lymphatic system. This test only provides a map for the surgeon to follow indicating a direction the disease may have followed. The pathology done on the specimens taken during surgery will determine the progression of the tumor.

            So my surgery is tomorrow morning at 7:15am. We have to be there a couple hours before surgery. The surgery typically takes 4.5 hours. I’m sure my husband and/or parents will let everyone know how I’m doing after surgery via facebook.

             Thank you again to everyone for the cards, letters, emails, texts and support. I have the best support system and I am so very thankful for each and every one of you. Extra special thank you to my super wonderful parents. I can’t imagine how hard this is for them to see their baby girl having to go through this. Thank you Mommy for being so supportive and being by my side always, I love you so very much! And of course to my super husband Jonathan, I can always count you to make me laugh even when I want to cry, you are so loving and supportive and reassuring.

Looking forward to tomorrow, I cannot wait to get this nasty cancer out of me and start the healing process.

 XOXO, Lynn