Third Time's a Charm

The BFF and I met with The Dutchman, this morning.  My pathology report was the only item on the agenda.  Well, that and a quick feel, of course.

Three weeks after surgery, both incisions are healing fine -- even with the slight inflamation of one end of the nodal wound (for which the GP gave me oral and topical antibiotics on Monday, both of which are doing the trick).

It turns out I'm two lymph nodes short of a full set, now.  The second one they removed showed no cancer cells.  The first revealed isolated tumor cells (ITCs) in tiny proportions -- .04 mm (that's 4 one-hundredths of a millimetre) at the largest point.  Taken together, that indicates a 5% chance of cancer appearing in the remaining lymph nodes over my lifetime.  A low number, and one I'm comfortable with.  And so is The Dutchman -- no further work to be done on that score.  And no chemo:  cue the happy dance!  Just Tamoxifen and radiation, down the road.

The additional breast tissue excised in order to clear the margins around the first lesion turned out to have further DCIS (precancerous cells) in its margin.  The Matrushka doll of lesions, as it were.  The new discovery is a 'skip lesion' -- a fresh area of concern, unrelated to the original site -- but now that it's been discovered, out it comes.  So, about a month from now, it's back on the table for round three.

If there was ever a time I've been grateful for big knockers, it's now.  Was I less generously endowed, a mastectomy would have been up for serious consideration.  But The Dutchman says he can remove the skip lesion and still leave me plenty of boobage, so I'll just be a little more lopsided than I am now.  Which is a little more lopsided than I was last month.  Which, in turn, is a little more lopsided than I was to start with.  I wonder if I'll list to port when all of this is over.