Surgery on Tuesday, October 2

I want to give an October 2nd birthday 'shout out' to my niece Jody and my cousin Diann. Jody has been extremely supportive of me during my cancer journey by visiting during chemo, giving me lots of cards and gifts, and, in general, just being Jody. She was the catalyst for my birthday book from my nieces and nephews. My cousin Diann Goodyear has provided me 'encouragement' for my journey by giving me one of my favorite comfort foods - homemade beirocks. Thanks Jody and Diann and Happy Birthday!

I am ready for surgery!! I have done a lot of 'work' preparing myself for the bilateral mastectomy as well as work on the emotional and mental aspects of my new body. I have tried to address body image issues and to prepare myself for the emotional and physical effects of the surgery. I know the bilateral mastectomy is the right choice for me and I am anxious to get this part behind me. The only hesitation I have about the whole ordeal is finding out the status of lymph nodes. Has the cancer spread to the lymph nodes or are they clean?

I will have a great support team in Kansas City with me. Nancy, Mom, Susan and Deb will be there for the surgery and Jody and Rebecca will probably stop by after work. It doesn't get any better than that! I am so appreciative to have such a wonderful family.... There isn't much more to say about them, but that I love them very much. I am scheduled to check-in at 9:30 am on Tuesday morning at KU Med, then go to Nuclear Medicine for the 'dye' injection into the area of my tumor and then back to surgery prep after that. In addition to the bilateral mastectomy, I am having a sentinel lymph node biopsy which is intended to remove as few lymph nodes as possible. The dye will drain into the lymph nodes that are responsible for draining the area of the breast that was affected by cancer. If the 'sentinel' lymph nodes contain cancer, Dr Conner might remove more nodes. If there is no cancer, she will probably leave other lymph nodes in place. I am guessing that my surgery (the bilateral mastectomy and the sentinel lymph node biopsy) won't start until 11:00 am or later. Dr. Conner indicated that the surgery would take approximately three hours and if all goes well, I can leave the hospital Wednesday or Thursday. I am hoping for just one day in the hospital. (The arrival time was originally scheduled for 6:30 am, but I received a call from Dr Conner's office that my new check-in time is 9:30.)

Hopefully my support team will post an update after surgery to let everyone know how things are going. Remember, they are rookies with my blog, so if you don't see a post right away, don't worry!