hello again,
well… i wanted to follow-up to my post from a few weeks back. i had a total dissection of my left groin last thursday. thank you to everyone who responded to my questions and gave me advice about my lymphedema, etc. i didn't expect the most painful recovery based on what some of you said you experienced. i guess it's not THAT BAD compared to my excision on my calf when i was really supposed to stay off my feet 100%. i'm finding this more painful at the groin area, but at least i can walk around the house when necessary.
hello again,
well… i wanted to follow-up to my post from a few weeks back. i had a total dissection of my left groin last thursday. thank you to everyone who responded to my questions and gave me advice about my lymphedema, etc. i didn't expect the most painful recovery based on what some of you said you experienced. i guess it's not THAT BAD compared to my excision on my calf when i was really supposed to stay off my feet 100%. i'm finding this more painful at the groin area, but at least i can walk around the house when necessary.
so i saw my surgeon today for my biopsy results. just to catch you up, my 2 sentinel nodes were positive for micro mets. i've been counting the days down for results on the rest of them. especially since i really struggled with the decision to even have the surgery. i have a very large fear of lymphedema since my foot and ankle were swelling badly after the excision. the good news is that with my drain, the foot swelling is reduced A LOT. so even if temporarily, i'm having some relief from the pain.
my surgeon tells me… things look ok BUT… sit down. so, he proceeds to explain that there were 5 nodes tested and they were all cancer free. GREAT NEWS except that he doesn't want me to breathe freely just yet. he felt that finding only 5 nodes was a lower number than average. so he has requested that the pathologist further dissect (melt fat tissue or something) to be sure that they didn't miss any nodes that could be pos or neg.
so my waiting begins again. he said he will call in 5 days or so. i'm feeling good about what they did find. although that means the dissection may have been for nothing, at least i have some peace of mind that i didn't leave cancer filled nodes sitting in my body undetected and untreated.
my dr tells me that a normal # of nodes in a cluster is 10-15. he did say that it wouldn't be impossible that i only had 7, but he just wants to be sure. does this seem like craziness? has anyone ever heard of anything like this before?
.
