Wednesday 4th - Dr Ben

First person we saw today was our registrar, Ben, the one who gave us the bad news 2 weeks ago. He's a doctor of course, but I think of him as 'Ben' because I'm sure he's younger than I am! Plus he's so friendly and nice.

He told us that they are just waiting on the absolute clarification of my results from the second W.L.E (wide local excision). He reckons it's looking good, but they have to double-check with the pathologist and the doctor who did the surgery to be absolutely 100% sure. I am not holding my breath this time.

The axillary clearance (removing the lymph nodes) was a success. In the first S.N.B. (sentinel node biopsy, at the time of the first operation) they took 7 nodes and 2 came back saying they had potential to have cancer. Apparently you only have to have 1 to get chemo. So when they went back this time, they took a further 18, that's 25 in total. Of the further 18, 0 came back with the potential to have cancer. So that means, 2/25 had it. So, that was kind of good news! Plus, it may mean that I won't have radiation therapy to my armpit, just to the breast. The radiation therapy to the armpit can increase the chance of lymphodaema, so it's good not to have to have it. Yay.