It's set

Went to bed early last night and forgot about posting. Oh well.

Met with the surgeon Friday morning and had another sonogram. There is still a small tumor there, she thinks, but she believes it is dead tissue. She showed us the latest one compared to the first sonogram, and the tissue that's there is certainly not as large nor as black as the first one!

The lumpectomy is scheduled for the morning of Nov. 1. I have to be there bright and early at 6:30 a.m.! She won't know until she actually cuts me open if it'll be an outpatient surgery or if I'll have to stay overnight. If she has to take any lymph nodes from under my arm, then I'll stay overnight because they'll have to put a drain in and I'll have to learn to deal with that until my body figures out it's got to do some rerouting. If they don't have to take lymph nodes, then I can go home that day. Either way, I think I'll take the rest of the week off. I probably won't feel much like working anyway.

She'll also remove the lump and some of the surrounding breast tissue, then they'll X-ray that to make sure she got enough clear tissue surrounding the cancer. If not, back in she goes to remove some more. I'll be completely under the whole time, at least so it's not like I'll be laying around trying to make small talk.

I'm a little nervous, since this will be only the second surgery I've had in my life, and far more extensive than having the port put in. But it'll be worth it. Maybe I can be over this a lot faster.

My surgeon also said there might be radiation to follow, once I recover from the surgery. That would be once a day, five days a week for I think about seven weeks. Radiation is more localized treatment than chemo, so I guess that's good, but time to do some more research. I'm sure she and my oncologist will be visiting soon anyway and figure out what they think is best. Maybe more chemo, maybe not. We'll see.

Got to go shower and get dressed. Today is the Day of Caring here, a brunch and fashion show for women with cancer. I'm not that much into fashion, but it's a reason to get out of the house anyway!

Later